I am a senior lecturer at Kingston University. My research integrates ecological data from small to large spatial scales to assess how environmental change impacts on biodiversity patterns and ecosystem function. I apply quantitative models to conservation biological questions to better explore the interplay between people, ecosystems and drivers of environmental change. Much of my research is focused at population and community scales, modelling plant functional trait relationships in temperate and tropical systems. I also explore the scale-dependent characteristics of drivers of environmental change, using various modelling approaches (e.g., species distribution models, Boosted Regression Trees) to predict how global change influences biodiversity patterns in tropical ecosystems. My research is conducted in tropical (forests of Madagascar and Puerto Rico) and temperate (UK fen) ecosystems.
I am member of British Ecological Society
1) Plant functional traits: In collaboration with Professor Martyn Waller, I am investigating the extent to which variation in functional traits affect the ability of lowland fen communities (woodland and herbaceous fens) to deliver a key ecosystem service (carbon storage). There is an impending urgency to understand how ecosystem services are produced, to quantify their rate of delivery and to model the interactions and feedbacks between these services and society, particularly in the context of informing environmental policy and ecosystem management. 2) Biodiversity: Biodiversity plays an integral role in the livelihoods of subsistence, forest-dwelling communities. My research seeks to understand the extent to which the livelihood of subsistence communities on the forest frontier are compromised by biodiversity loss. To accomplish this, I use quantitative approaches that capture not only changes in taxonomic diversity, but also variation in natural resources and provisioning services (i.e., using functional diversity metrics). 3) Spatial predictive models: I investigate the effects of environmental change on biodiversity--across small and large spatial scales--using ecological niche models and various other modeling techniques. This aspect of my work has been undertaken in various systems, both tropical landscapes and seascapes.
Carvalho, Fabio, Brown, Kerry A., Waller, Martyn P., Bunting, M. Jane, Boom, Arnoud and Leng, Melanie J. (2019) A method for reconstructing temporal changes in vegetation functional trait composition using Holocene pollen assemblages. PLoS ONE, ISSN (online) 1932-6203 (In Press)
Yesuf, Gabriel, Brown, Kerry A. and Walford, Nigel (2019) Assessing regional-scale variability in deforestation and forest degradation rates in a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, ISSN (online) 2056-3485 (Epub Ahead of Print)
Butler, Ethan E., Datta, Abhirup, Flores-Moreno, Habacuc, Chen, Ming, Wythers, Kirk R., Fazayeli, Farideh, Banerjee, Arindam, Atkin, Owen K., Kattge, Jens, Amiaud, Bernard, Blonder, Benjamin, Boenisch, Gerhard, Bond-Lamberty, Ben, Brown, Kerry A., Byun, Chaeho, Campetella, Giandiego, Cerabolini, Bruno E.L., Cornelissen, Johannes H.C., Craine, Joseph M., Craven, Dylan, de Vries, Franciska T., Diaz, Sandra, Domingues, Tomas, Forey, Estelle, Gonzalez, Andres, Gross, Nicolas, Han, Wenxuan, Hattingh, Wesley N., Hickler, Thomas, Jansen, Steven, Kramer, Koen, Kraft, Nathan J.B., Kurokawa, Hiroko, Laughlin, Daniel C., Meir, Patrick, Minden, Vanessa, Niinemets, Ulo, Onoda, Yusuke, Penuelas, Josep, Read, Quentin, Valladares Ros, Fernando, Sack, Lawren, Schamp, Brandon, Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A., Spasojevic, Marko J., Sosinski, Enio, Thornton, Peter, van Bodegom, Peter M., Williams, Matthew, Wirth, Christian and Reich, Peter B. (2017) Mapping local and global variability in plant trait distributions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 114(51), E10937-E10946. ISSN (print) 0027-8424
Razafindratsima, Onja H., Brown, Kerry A., Carvalho, Fabio, Johnson, Steig E., Wright, Patricia C. and Dunham, Amy E. (2017) Edge effects on components of diversity and above-ground biomass in a tropical rainforest. Journal Of Applied Ecology, ISSN (print) 0021-8901 (Epub Ahead of Print)
Waller, Martyn, Carvalho Gomes Da Silva, Fabio, Grant, Michael J., Bunting, M. Jane and Brown, Kerry (2017) Disentangling the pollen signal from fen systems : modern and Holocene studies from southern and eastern England. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 238, pp. 15-33. ISSN (print) 0034-6667
Brown, Kerry, Farris, Zach J., Yesuf, Gabriel, Gerber, Brian D., Rasambainarivo, Fidisoa, Karpanty, Sarah, Kelly, Marcella, Razafimahaimodison, Jean Claude, Larney, Eileen, Wright, Patricia and Johnson, Steig E. (2016) Modeling co-occurrence between toxic prey and naive predators in an incipient invasion. Biodiversity and Conservation, 25(13), pp. 2723-2741. ISSN (print) 0960-3115
Johnson, Steig E., Delmore, Kira E., Brown, Kerry A., Wyman, Tracy M. and Louis, Edward E. (2016) Niche divergence in a brown lemur (' Eulemur ' spp.) hybrid zone : using ecological niche models to test models of stability. International Journal of Primatology, 37(1), pp. 69-88. ISSN (print) 0164-0291
Brown, Kerry A, Parks, Katherine E, Bethell, Colin, Johnson, Steig E and Mulligan, Mark (2015) Predicting plant diversity patterns in madagascar: understanding the effects of climate and land cover change in a biodiversity hotspot. PloS one, 10(4), e0122721. ISSN (online) 1932-6203
Brown, Kerry A., Johnson, Steig E., Parks, Katherine E., Holmes, Sheila M., Ivoandry, Tonisoa, Abram, Nicola K., Delmore, Kira E., Ludovic, Reza, Andriamaharoa, Hubert E., Wyman, Tracy M. and Wright, Patricia C. (2013) Use of provisioning ecosystem services drives loss of functional traits across land use intensification gradients in tropical forests in Madagascar. Biological Conservation, 161(May), pp. 118-127. ISSN (print) 0006-3207
Hitt, Steven, Pittman, Simon J. and Brown, Kerry A. (2011) Tracking and mapping sun-synchronous migrations and diel space use patterns of Haemulon sciurus and Lutjanus apodus in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 92(4), pp. 525-538. ISSN (print) 0378-1909
Brown, Kerry A., Flynn, Dan F. B., Abram, Nicola K., Ingram, J. Carter, Johnson, Steig E. and Wright, Patricia (2011) Assessing natural resource use by forest-reliant communities in Madagascar using functional diversity and functional redundancy metrics. PloS one, 6(9), e24107. ISSN (online) 1932-6203
Pittman, Simon J. and Brown, Kerry (2011) Multi-Scale approach for predicting fish species distributions across coral reef seascapes. PLoS Biology, 6(5), e20583. ISSN (print) 1544-9173
Brown, Kerry, Carter Ingram, J., Flynn, Dan F.B., Razafindrazaka, Rova and Jeannoda, Vololoniaina (2009) Protected Area Safeguard Tree and Shrub Communities from Degradation and Invasion: A Case Study in Eastern Madagascar. Environmental Management, 44(1), pp. 136-148. ISSN (print) 0364-152X
Brown, Kerry, Spector, Sacha and Wei, Wu (2008) Multi-scale analysis of species introductions: combining landscape and demographic models to improve management decisions about non-native species. Journal Of Applied Ecology, 45(6), pp. 1639-1648. ISSN (print) 0021-8901
Brown, Kerry, Scatena, F.N. and Gurevitch, Jessica (2006) Effects of an invasive tree on community structure and diversity in a tropical forest in Puerto Rico. Forest Ecology and Management, 226(1-3), pp. 145-152. ISSN (print) 0378-1127
Brown, Kerry and Gurevitch, Jessica (2004) Long-term impacts of logging on forest diversity in Madagascar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) ISSN 1091-6490, 101(16), pp. 6045-6049. ISSN (online) 1091-6490
Hyatt, Laura, Rosenberg, Michael, Howard, Timothy, Bole, Gregory, Fang, Wei, Anastasia, J.A., Brown, Kerry, Grella, Rebecca, Hinman, Katherine, Kurdziel, J.A. and Gurevitch, Jessica (2003) The distance dependence prediction of the Janzen-Connell hypothesis: a meta-analysis. Oikos, 103(3), pp. 590-602. ISSN (print) 0030-1299