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Jonathan Knott

Jonathan Knott
Research Forester
Northern Research Station
1992 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108-1034
United States
0000-0003-3856-8454

Current Research

My research generally focuses on linking forest ecology to carbon science. I utilize a variety of tools, from remote sensing to modeling, to better understand how forests are capturing, storing, and releasing carbon. Some current and upcoming projects include: using remote sensing for biomass estimation, assessing shifts in community composition and carbon dynamics in the wildland-urban interface, and characterizing land use and land use change with inventory data.

Past Research

My past research focused on spatial and community ecology, including assessing shifts in tree species distributions, testing for changes in species composition and spatial distribution of forest communities, and identifying temporal trends in eastern U.S. tree genera. I have also worked with automated content analysis (ACA) and topic modeling to understand research trends in ecology and its subdisciplines.

Research Interest

My research interests include:
  • Spatial ecology
  • Community ecology
  • Carbon science
  • Quantitative methods
  • Remote sensing
  • Tree demography

Bildung

  • Purdue University, Ph.D. Forestry and Natural Resources, Forest ecology, spatial ecology, community ecology, 2020
  • Calvin College, B.S. Biology, General Biology, Ecology, 2015

Professional Experience

  • Research Forester,  USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA),  2021 - Current
    I am a Research Forester with the FIA Carbon Science Group (https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/programs/fia). My research aims to link forest ecological processes with carbon dynamics using a variety of tools including remote sensing, tree demography, and statistical modeling/quantitative ecology, among others. The goal of this work is to both improve our understanding of forest carbon dynamics as well as support and improve the FIA program's collection, monitoring, and reporting of forest resources.
  • Postdoctoral Research Associate,  Michigan State University,  2020 - 2020
    Assessed patterns of biodiversity using National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) data as part of an NSF-funded project in Dr. Phoebe Zarnetske's Spatial and Community Ecology (SpaCE) lab at Michigan State University, Dept. of Integrative Biology.

Awards & Recognition

  • Northern Research Station Research Highlight, 2022
    Recognition by the Northern Research Station for research accomplishments in 2022, for the paper "Shifting forests and carbon: linking community composition and aboveground carbon attributes" (Knott, et al. 2022)
  • W.S. Cooper Award, Ecological Society of America, 2019
    For an outstanding publication in the field of geobotany, physiographic ecology, plant succession, or the distribution of plants along environmental gradients, for the paper “Divergence of species responses to climate change” (Fei, et al. 2017)

Citations of Non-Forest Service Publications

  • Knott, J. A., Desprez, J. M., Oswalt, C. M., & Fei, S. (2019). Shifts in forest composition in the eastern United States. Forest Ecology and Management, 433(October 2018), 176–183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2018.10.061
  • Knott, J., LaRue, E., Ward, S., McCallen, E., Ordonez, K., Wagner, F., Jo, I., Elliott, J., & Fei, S. (2019). A roadmap for exploring the thematic content of ecology journals. Ecosphere, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2801
  • McCallen, E., Knott, J., Nunez-Mir, G., Taylor, B., Jo, I., & Fei, S. (2019). Trends in ecology: Shifts in ecological research themes over the past four decades. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 17(2), 109–116. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1993
  • Knott, J. A., Jenkins, M. A., Oswalt, C. M., & Fei, S. (2020). Community-level responses to climate change in forests of the eastern United States. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 29(8), 1299–1314. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13102
  • Buteyn, N., Oh, Y. I., Knott, J., Bokach, P., Konyndyk, J., Tenney, J., Wilstermann, A., Fynewever, H., & Koetje, D. (2019). Exploring nutraceuticals to enhance scientific literacy: Aligning with vision and change. American Biology Teacher, 81(3), 176–185. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2019.81.3.176

  • LaRue, E. A., Rohr, J., Knott, J., Dodds, W. K., Dahlin, K. M., Thorp, J. H., Johnson, J. S., Rodriguez-Gonzalez, M., Hardiman, B. S., Keller, M., Fahey, R. T., SanClements, M. D., Atkins, J. W., Tromboni, F., Chandra, S., Parker, G., Rose, K., Liu, J., Fei, S. (2021). The evolution of macrosystems biology. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2288

Last updated February 1, 2024