UMass Boston

Marine Ecology; Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function; Climate Change Ecology

PhD, UC Davis, 2008 (Population Biology)

BS, Brown University, 2001 (Biology)

• Hooper, D.U., Adair, E.C., Cardinale, B.J., Byrnes, J.E.K., Hungate, B.A., Matulich, KL., Gonzalez, A., Duffy, J.E., Gamfeldt, L., O'Connor, M.I. 2012. Biodiversity loss ranks as a major driver of ecosystem change. Nature.
• Ponette-González, A.G. and Byrnes, J.E. 2011. Sustainable science? Reducing the carbon impacts of mega-meetings. Ethnobiology Letters. 2:65-71.
• Byrnes, J.E., Reed, D.C., Cardinale, B.J., Cavanaugh, K.C., Holbrook, S.J., and Schmitt, R.J. 2011. Climate driven increases in storm frequency simplify kelp forest food webs. Global Change Biology. 17: 2513-2524.
• Fox, J., Byrnes, J., Boker, S., and Neale, M. 2012. Structural equation modeling in R with the sem and OpenMX packages. In Handbook of Structural Equation Modeling. Rock H. Hole, David Kaplan, George Marcoulides, and Steve West, eds. pg. 325-340.
• Cardinale, B. J., Matulich, K. L., Hooper, D. U., Byrnes, J. E., Duffy, E., Gamfeldt, L., Balvanera, P., O'Connor, M. I., and Gonzalez, A. 2011. The functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems. American Journal of Botany. 98:572-592.
• Yang, L.J., Edwards, K.E., Byrnes, J.E., Baston, J.L., Wright, A.N., and Spence, K.O. In Press. A meta-analysis of resource pulse-consumer interactions. Ecological Monographs. 80: 125-151.
• Byrnes, J.E. and Stachowicz, J.J. 2009. Short and Long-Term consequences of increases in exotic species richness on water filtration by marine invertebrates. Ecology Letters. 8: 830-841.
• Byrnes, J.E. and Stachowicz, J.J. 2009. The consequences of consumer diversity loss: different answers from different designs. Ecology. 90: 2879-2888.
• Olyarnik, S.V., Bracken, M.E., Byrnes, J.E., Hughes, A.R., Hultgren, K.M., Stachowicz, J.J. 2009. Ecological factors affecting community invasibility. In Biological Invasions in Marine Ecosystems: Ecological, Management, and Geographic Perspectives. Gil Rilov and Jeff Crooks, eds. Springer-Verlag. pp. 215-138.
• Byrnes, J.E., Reynolds, P.L., Stachowicz, J.J. 2007. Invasions and extinctions reshape coastal marine food webs. PLoS One. 2: e295.
• Hughes A.R., Byrnes J.E., Kimbro D.L. & Stachowicz J.J. 2007. Reciprocal relationships and potential feedbacks between biodiversity and disturbance. Ecology Letters. 10: 849-864.
• Bullard S. G., Lambert G, Carman M.R., Byrnes J., Whitlatch R.B., Ruiz G., Miller R.J., Harris L., Valentine P.C., Collie J.S., Pederson J., McNaught D.C., Cohen A.N., Asch R.G., Dijkstra J., Heinonen K. 2007. The invasive colonial ascidian Didemnum sp.: current distribution, basic biology, and potential threat to marine communities of the northeast and west coasts of North America. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 342: 99-108.
• Byrnes, J.E., Stachowicz, J.J., Hultgren, K.M., Hughes, A.R., Olyarnik, S.V., Thornber, C. 2006. Predator Diversity Enhances Trophic Cascades in Kelp Forests by Modifying Herbivore Behavior. Ecology Letters. 9: 61-71.
• Stachowicz, J.J. and Byrnes, J.E. 2006. Species diversity, invasion success and ecosystem functioning: combining experimental and observational approaches to assess the roles of resource competition, facilitation and extrinsic factors. Marine Ecology Progress Series. 311: 251-262.
• Byrnes, J.E. and Witman, J.D. 2003. Impact assessment of an invasive flatworm, Convoluta convoluta, in the southern Gulf of Maine. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology. 293: 173-191.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the causes and consequences of complexity in nature. I am interested in how humans alter the diversity and interconnectedness of life on earth. Understanding how these changes alter the services that nature provides is a critical need as we watch ecosystem after ecosystem collapse. I study these questions in the ocean because, let's face it, the sheer number and diversity of species in the oceans is astounding.