Dr. Jason Blackburn
· Department Chair and ProfessorUniversity of Florida · Geography
Active 1964–2024
About
Dr. Jason Blackburn is a professor of medical geography and the department chair at the University of Florida's Department of Geography. He is also a principal investigator in the Emerging Pathogens Institute and the director of the Spatial Epidemiology and Ecology Research Laboratory (SEER Lab), which is jointly housed in Geography and the EPI. His research interests focus on the ecology and spatio-temporal patterns of zoonotic diseases that impact both animals and humans, with a primary concentration on bacterial pathogens such as anthrax, brucellosis, plague, and tularemia. His work employs ecological niche modeling, spatio-temporal clustering techniques, and ecological modeling to analyze disease outbreaks and pathogen distributions, particularly in regions including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Botswana, and the American West. Dr. Blackburn collaborates with colleagues from the UF Vet School on projects in St. Kitts, Nevis, and Dominica. His lab is funded by multiple agencies including CRDF Global, the Department of Energy, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, NSF, NIH, and USDA. In addition to zoonotic diseases, he has research interests in shark biology and ecology, marine mammal biology, and large predatory cats such as cougars and ocelots in Texas. Dr. Blackburn emphasizes engaging students directly in research and scientific writing, providing them with hands-on experience through domestic and international projects, and updating course materials regularly to include new literature, GIS practical labs, and techniques in Medical Geography, Spatial Epidemiology, Geospatial Science, and Disease Ecology.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Biology
- Geography
- Ecology
- Evolutionary biology
- Zoology
- Political Science
- Data science
- Anatomy
- Artificial Intelligence
- World Wide Web
- Telecommunications
- Genetics
- Psychology
- Law
- Cartography
- Database
- Orthodontics
- Paleontology
- Archaeology
- Multimedia
Selected publications
BioScience · 2024 · 87 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Computer Science
- Data science
The impact of preserved museum specimens is transforming and increasing by three-dimensional (3D) imaging that creates high-fidelity online digital specimens. Through examples from the openVertebrate (oVert) Thematic Collections Network, we describe how we created a digitization community dedicated to the shared vision of making 3D data of specimens available and the impact of these data on a broad audience of scientists, students, teachers, artists, and more. High-fidelity digital 3D models allow people from multiple communities to simultaneously access and use scientific specimens. Based on our multiyear, multi-institution project, we identify significant technological and social hurdles that remain for fully realizing the potential impact of digital 3D specimens.
State of the Amphibia 2020: A Review of Five Years of Amphibian Research and Existing Resources
Ichthyology & Herpetology · 2022 · 52 citations
- Biology
- Ecology
- Evolutionary biology
Amphibians are a clade of over 8,400 species that provide unique research opportunities and challenges. With amphibians undergoing severe global declines, we posit that assessing our current understanding of amphibians is imperative. Focusing on the past five years (2016–2020), we examine trends in amphibian research, data, and systematics. New species of amphibians continue to be described at a pace of ∼150 per year. Phylogenomic studies are increasing, fueling a growing consensus in the amphibian tree of life. Over 3,000 species of amphibians are now represented by expert-curated accounts or data in AmphibiaWeb, AmphibiaChina, BIOWEB, or the Amphibian Disease Portal. Nevertheless, many species lack basic natural history data (e.g., diet records, morphological measurements, call recordings) and major gaps exist for entire amphibian clades. Genomic resources appear on the cusp of a rapid expansion, but large, repetitive amphibian genomes still pose significant challenges. Conservation continues to be a major focus for amphibian research, and threats cataloged on AmphibiaWeb for 1,261 species highlight the need to address land use change and disease using adaptive management strategies. To further promote amphibian research and conservation, we underscore the importance of database integration and suggest that other understudied or imperiled clades would benefit from similar assessments of existing data.
Re‐evaluating the morphological evidence for the re‐evolution of lost mandibular teeth in frogs
Evolution · 2021 · 19 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Anatomy
Dollo's law of irreversibility states that once a complex structure is lost, it cannot be regained in the same form. Several putative exceptions to Dollo's law have been identified using phylogenetic comparative methods, but the anatomy and development of these traits are often poorly understood. Gastrotheca guentheri is renowned as the only frog with teeth on the lower jaw. Mandibular teeth were lost in the ancestor of frogs more than 200 million years ago and subsequently regained in G. guentheri. Little is known about the teeth in this species despite being a frequent example of trait "re-evolution," leaving open the possibility that it may have mandibular pseudoteeth. We assessed the dental anatomy of G. guentheri using micro-computed tomography and histology and confirmed the longstanding assumption that true mandibular teeth are present. Remarkably, the mandibular teeth of G. guentheri are nearly identical in gross morphology and development to upper jaw teeth in closely related species. The developmental genetics of tooth formation are unknown in this possibly extinct species. Our results suggest that an ancestral odontogenic pathway has been conserved but suppressed in the lower jaw since the origin of frogs, providing a possible mechanism underlying the re-evolution of lost mandibular teeth.
<i>JAMA Network Open</i> Peer Reviewers in 2019
JAMA Network Open · 2020 · 1 citations
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Political Science
Digitization and the Future of Natural History Collections
BioScience · 2020 · 299 citations
- Computer Science
- Computer Science
- Data science
Abstract Natural history collections (NHCs) are the foundation of historical baselines for assessing anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Along these lines, the online mobilization of specimens via digitization—the conversion of specimen data into accessible digital content—has greatly expanded the use of NHC collections across a diversity of disciplines. We broaden the current vision of digitization (Digitization 1.0)—whereby specimens are digitized within NHCs—to include new approaches that rely on digitized products rather than the physical specimen (Digitization 2.0). Digitization 2.0 builds on the data, workflows, and infrastructure produced by Digitization 1.0 to create digital-only workflows that facilitate digitization, curation, and data links, thus returning value to physical specimens by creating new layers of annotation, empowering a global community, and developing automated approaches to advance biodiversity discovery and conservation. These efforts will transform large-scale biodiversity assessments to address fundamental questions including those pertaining to critical issues of global change.
Evolution of hyperossification expands skull diversity in frogs
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 90 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Biology
- Evolutionary biology
- Ecology
Frogs (Anura) are one of the most diverse vertebrate orders, comprising more than 7,000 species with a worldwide distribution and extensive ecological diversity. In contrast to other tetrapods, frogs have a highly derived body plan and simplified skull. In many lineages of anurans, increased mineralization has led to hyperossified skulls, but the function of this trait and its relationship with other aspects of head morphology are largely unexplored. Using three-dimensional morphological data from 158 species representing all frog families, we assessed wide-scale patterns of shape variation across all major lineages, reconstructed the evolutionary history of cranial hyperossification across the anuran phylogeny, and tested for relationships between ecology, skull shape, and hyperossification. Although many frogs share a conserved skull shape, several extreme forms have repeatedly evolved that commonly are associated with hyperossification, which has evolved independently more than 25 times. Variation in cranial shape is not explained by phylogenetic relatedness but is correlated with shifts in body size and ecology. The species with highly divergent, hyperossified skulls often have a specialized diet or a unique predator defense mechanism. Thus, the evolution of hyperossification has repeatedly facilitated the expansion of the head into multiple new shapes and functions.
Recent grants
Digitization TCN: Collaborative Research: oVert: Open Exploration of Vertebrate Diversity in 3D
NSF · $808k · 2017–2023
Collaborative Research: Biotic Surveys of Central Saharan Oases
NSF · $621k · 2011–2015
Collaborative Research: Biotic Surveys of Central Saharan Oases
NSF · $88k · 2015–2016
Collaborative Research: Survey and Analysis of the Angolan Herpetofauna
NSF · $318k · 2016–2021
Frequent coauthors
- 107 shared
Edward L. Stanley
Florida Museum of Natural History
- 79 shared
Daniel M. Portik
California Academy of Sciences
- 64 shared
T. Lagerwall
Chalmers University of Technology
- 64 shared
Georg Krüger
- 64 shared
K Ahl
Chalmers University of Technology
- 64 shared
John Manning
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- 64 shared
V. B. Fiks
Argonne National Laboratory
- 64 shared
Robert Hesketh
State University of New York
Labs
GEO:AIPI
Education
- 2008
PhD, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University
- 2001
A.B., Biology
University of Chicago
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