My research interests encompass a broad range of topics in large-scale ecology and comparative evolutionary ecology. My early work focused on macroecology, including research programs in the causes and consequences of spatial variation in, and interactions between, abundance, geographic distribution and body size in animal assemblages across national to global scales. While I still maintain an interest in these questions, most of my recent research has addressed the ecology and evolution of invasions, especially the causes of establishment success, and how invasions by exotic organisms (including humans) relate to extinctions of native bird species on oceanic islands. I am also involved with collaborations on biotic homogenization, comparative physiology and the evolution of egg coloration in birds.

Recent key publications 

Blackburn, T.M. , Lockwood, J.L. & Cassey, P. (2007). The island biogeography of exotic bird species. Global Ecology and Biogeography, in press.

Blackburn, T.M., Cassey, P. & Gaston, K.J. (2006). Variations on a theme: sources of heterogeneity in the form of the interspecific relationship between abundance and distribution. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 1426-1439.

Lockwood, J.L., Cassey, P. & Blackburn, T.M. (2005). The role of propagule pressure in explaining species invasion. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20, 223-228.

Orme, C.D.L., Davies, R.G., Burgess, M., Eigenbrod, F., Pickup, N., Olson, V., Webster, A.J., Ding, T.-S., Rasmussen, P.C., Ridgely, R.S., Stattersfield, A.J., Bennett, P.M., Blackburn, T.M., Gaston, K.J. & Owens, I.P.F. (2005). Global biodiversity hotspots of species richness, threat and endemism are not congruent. Nature, 436, 1016-1019.

Sol, D, Duncan, R.P., Blackburn, T.M., Cassey, P., & Lefebvre, L. (2005). Big brains, enhanced cognition and response of birds to novel environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA., 105, 5460-5465.

Blackburn, T.M., Cassey, P., Duncan, R.P., Evans, K.L. & Gaston, K.J. (2004). Avian extinction risk and mammalian introductions on oceanic islands. Science, 305, 1955-1958.

Duncan, R.P., Blackburn, T.M. & Sol. D. (2003). The ecology of bird introductions. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 34, 71-98.

Duncan, R.P., Blackburn, T.M. & Worthy, T.H. (2002). Prehistoric bird extinctions and human hunting.  Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, B, 269, 517 - 521.

Blackburn, T.M. & Duncan, R.P. (2001). Determinants of establishment success in introduced birds. Nature, 414, 195-197.

Gaston, K.J. & Blackburn, T.M. (2000) Pattern and process in macroecology. Blackwell Science, Oxford.

Contact Tim Blackburn