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Melinda Knutson
has a B.S.N. in Nursing (1977) and a M.P.H. in Public Health (1984)
from the University of Minnesota, a M.S. in Environmental and
Forest
Biology (1991) from SUNY College of Environmental Sciences and
Forestry, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (1995)
from Iowa
State University.
Dr. Knutson was a farmer in southeastern Minnesota and worked in
public health agencies and medical clinics from 1977 to 1988. She
joined the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1991 and the USGS Upper
Midwest Environmental Sciences Center in 1995. Her research has
focused on modeling wildlife habitat associations at local and regional
scales for forest-nesting songbirds and amphibians. She has studied
the bird communities of large floodplain forests along the Upper
Mississippi River and explored how agricultural management practices
can be modified to sustain biodiversity in the Driftless Area Ecoregion
of the midwestern USA.
She is currently developing habitat models to support management
of migratory bird species at risk of population declines. She works
closely with federal land management agencies to develop conservation
planning and outreach tools that can be applied at local and regional
scales.
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Current projects:
Selected publications
- Knutson, M. G., W. B. Richardson, D. M. Reineke, B. R. Gray, J. R.
Parmelee, and S. E. Weick. 2004. Agricultural
ponds support amphibian populations. Ecological Applications 14:669-684.
- Knutson, M. G., G. J. Niemi, W. E. Newton, and M. A. Friberg. 2004.
Avian
nest success in midwestern forests fragmented by agriculture. Condor
106:116-130.
- MacKenzie, D. I., J. D. Nichols, J. E. Hines, M. G. Knutson, and A.
B. Franklin. 2003. Estimating
site occupancy, colonization and local extinction when a species is
detected imperfectly. Ecology 84:2200-2207.
- Gustafson, E. J., M. G. Knutson, G. J. Niemi, and M. Friberg. 2002.
Evaluation
of spatial models to predict vulnerability of forest birds to brood
parasitism by cowbirds. Ecological Applications 12:412-426.
- Knutson, M. G., G. Butcher, J. Fitzgerald, and J. Shieldcastle. 2001.
Partners in
Flight Bird Conservation Plan for The Upper Great Lakes Plain (Physiographic
Area 16). USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences
Center in cooperation with Partners in Flight, La Crosse, Wisconsin,
1 November 2001.
- Fox, T. J., M. G. Knutson, and R. K. Hines. 2000. Mapping
forest canopy gaps using air photo interpretation and ground surveys. Wildlife Society
Bulletin 28:882-889.
- Knutson, M. G., S. J. Gutreuter, and E. E. Klaas. 2000. Patterns
of artificial nest depredation in a large floodplain forest. Journal of
Wildlife Management 64:576-583.
- Knutson, M. G., J. R. Sauer, D. O. Olsen, M. J. Mossman, L. H. Hemesath,
and M. J. Lannoo. 2000. Landscape
associations of frog and toad species in Iowa and Wisconsin, U.S.A.
Journal of the Iowa Academy of Sciences 107:134-145.
- Hochachka, W. M., T. E. Martin, V. Artman, C. R. Smith, S. J. Hejl,
D. E. Andersen, D. Curson, L. Petit, N. Mathews, T. Donovan, E. E. Klaas,
P. B. Wood, J. C. Manolis, K. P. McFarland, J. V. Nichols, J. C. Bednarz,
D. M. Evans, J. P. Duguay, S. Garner, J. Tewksbury, K. L. Purcell, J.
Faaborg, C. B. Goguen, C. Rimmer, R. Dettmers, M. Knutson, J. A. Collazo,
L. Garner, D. Whitehead, and G. Geupel. 1999. Scale
dependence in the effects of forest coverage on parasitization by brown-headed
cowbirds.
Studies in Avian Biology 18:80-88.
- Knutson, M. G., R. K. Hines, C. M. Sveum, T. J. Fox, and C. E. Korschgen.
1999. Floodplain
forest songbirds of the Upper Mississippi River. Passenger
Pigeon 61:307-310.
- Knutson, M. G., J. R. Sauer, D. A. Olsen, M. J. Mossman, L. M. Hemesath,
and M. J. Lannoo. 1999. Effects
of landscape composition and wetland fragmentation on frog and toad
abundance and species richness in Iowa and Wisconsin, U.S.A. Conservation
Biology 13: 1437-1446.
- Knutson, M. G., and E. E. Klaas. 1998. Floodplain
forest loss and changes in forest community composition and structure
in the Upper Mississippi
River: a wildlife habitat at risk. Natural Areas Journal 18:138-150.
- Knutson, M. G., and E. E. Klaas. 1997. Declines
in abundance and species richness of birds following a major flood
on the Upper Mississippi
River. Auk 114:367-380.
- Knutson, M. G., J. P. Hoover, and E. E. Klaas. 1996. The
importance of floodplain forests in the conservation and management
of neotropical migratory birds in the Midwest. Pages 168-188 in
F. R. Thompson, ed. Management of midwestern landscapes for the conservation
of neotropical migratory birds. General Technical Report NC-187. USDA
Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station, St. Paul, Minnesota.
UMESC file types
(.pdf)
Contact our Librarian for copies
of any of these publications.
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