John Cooley

Assistant Professor-in-Residence, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Primary Research Theme

Social-Ecological Systems

Secondary Research Themes

Built Environment

Research Interests

I’m interested in how ecological communities are affected by urbanization and how we can change our patterns of development to have less severe effects on ecosystems.

Recent Cities-Related Projects

• Do urban heat effects influence host-parasite relationships in birds? Proposed Project: Urbanization changes habitat structure (buildings, planted trees), and structural changes affect microclimate (cooling). These changes can have larger effects on ecological communities by influencing species interactions, such as host-parasite relationships. We propose to expand a box-nesting bird-parasite program in Hartford to compare the effects of urbanization and experimental temperature manipulations on bird health and disease risk. (Sarah Knutie, PI, John Cooley, Co-PI)