Alan Knapp
Current research interests reflect my initial training as a Plant Physiological Ecologist and a three-decade association with large-scale ecosystem research through the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. Traditional leaf-level gas exchange, plant water relations, and energy balance studies have been a staple of our research for many years, with a focus on ecophysiological mechanisms that drive ecological processes and reflect evolutionary change. This approach has been broadened by involvement with the Konza Prairie LTER program. These interactions have provided our lab with a strong appreciation for collaborative, interdisciplinary research across broad spatial and temporal scales. Indeed, we now label ourselves as Plant & Ecosystem Ecologists that are comfortable working at scales varying from the leaf to the landscape.
Collaborative, interdisciplinary research is appealing and important because it provides scientists the opportunity to make key contributions within the specific framework of a single discipline (a traditional approach), as well as the tools to synthesize across disciplines and tackle issues that the single lab approach cannot. This synthetic approach to Ecology best describes our group's current and future research interests.
[email protected]
Collaborative, interdisciplinary research is appealing and important because it provides scientists the opportunity to make key contributions within the specific framework of a single discipline (a traditional approach), as well as the tools to synthesize across disciplines and tackle issues that the single lab approach cannot. This synthetic approach to Ecology best describes our group's current and future research interests.
[email protected]