John grew up in south Florida and began snorkeling on reefs in the Florida Keys with his family in 1972. John is a marine ecologist and conservation biologist. Research in the Bruno lab is focused on understanding and conserving the structure and dynamics of marine communities. Lab members work in a variety of marine habitats including coral reefs, coastal wetlands, oyster reefs, sea grass beds, and other estuarine habitats. Current projects in the Bruno lab include the importance of predator biodiversity in food webs, trophic cascades on coral reefs, regional and global patterns of reef state and decline, the effectiveness of tropical marine reserves, and the dispersal and meta-community dynamics of marine plants and animals. John earned his Ph.D. from Brown University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University.