Research

Saint Louis University

Knouft Lab

Department of Biology

Our research interests are focused on the investigation of the factors regulating the current and future distributions and diversity of aquatic taxa across multiple spatial scales.  A primary goal of this research is to develop hydrologically appropriate GIS applications for the study of aquatic biodiversity.

 

Current Funding

2009 - 14  Development of GIS applications for the study of aquatic biodiversity: assessing environmental factors regulating fish assemblages across multiple scales. National Science Foundation Career Award, $503,291.  (Knouft, PI)

**Supplement to Career Award to establish a morphometrics workstation and initiate research on the relationship between morphological variation in fishes and hydrologic variability.  National Science Foundation, $58,659.

**Research Opportunity Award Supplement to Career Award to study the distribution of endangered wetland plants in Illinois and Missouri.  National Science Foundation, $23,000. 

 

2009 - 12  Combining climate model predictions, hydrological modeling, and ecological niche modeling algorithms to predict the impacts of climate change on aquatic biodiversity.  Environmental Protection Agency, Science To Achieve Results (STAR) - Consequences of Global Change for Water Quality program.  $246,149.  (Knouft, PI)

 

2008 - 11  Assessing and reducing the threat of flood disasters and ecosystem destruction along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers using satellite data, flow measurements and climate models.  Kemper-Stupp Foundation, $250,000.  (T. Kusky (PI), W. Dannevik, A. Ghulam, J. Knouft, Z. Pan (Co-PIs))

 

Current Research

• Influence of current and future hydrologic variability on aquatic biodiversity

   The goal of this research is the generate GIS-based hydrologic data to examine the relationship between “in-stream” environmental variables and aquatic species diversity (fishes, crayfishes, mollusks).  The GIS data are generated using the SWAT hydrologic model, which incorporates temperature, precipitation, landcover, soil type, and topographic data to predict daily time-step flow predictions.  These models are then used to predict future environmental conditions based on various climate change models.

 

• Generation of fine-scale GIS data to examine niche characteristics in stream 

   fish assemblages

   We are producing fine-scale GIS data (<1 m resolution) to better understand factors regulating aquatic community structure in a spatial context. The goal of this research is to assess the relationship between intra-annual habitat variability, environmental niche characteristics, and abundance of individuals among species, as well as the influence of biotic interactions on environmental niche characteristics of stream fish species.

 

 

• Evolution of geographic ranges and regional biodiversity in North American

   fishes

   Dr. Larry Page (University of Florida) and I are examining historical and contemporary factors regulating North American freshwater fish distributions and geographic range characteristics using a taxonomically complete dataset of GIS-based species distribution maps from Larry’s updated Peterson’s Field Guide.