ASU SoLS Faculty: Jeffrey M. Klopatek

Jeff Klopatek arrived at Arizona State University in 1981 after spending five years as a Research Ecologist in the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he also taught at the University of Tennessee. He completed his Ph.D. with Paul Risser at the University of Oklahoma, following earlier studies with Forest Stearns at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. He is a certified Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America and a past two time Chair of ESA’s Board of Professional Certification. Among his honors was his award as a Senior Fulbright Scholar that he received enabling him to conduct research in Nambia, located in southwest Africa.

Both my teaching and research activities focus on ecosystem and landscape ecology and the methods needed to address ecological topics at theses scales. The students in my laboratory have working on a wide scale of projects, ranging from microbial controls on decomposition to the analysis of satellite images for determining landscape changes. Research has taken place in a myriad of ecosystems: extreme deserts, wetlands, old-growth temperate rain forests, deciduous forests, shrublands and urban and agricultural systems. We currently have projects ongoing in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest, forests and rangelands in Arizona, soils in the Antarctica Peninsula and the Phoenix urban area, as part of the CAP LTER. Our research emphasis is currently divided in two primary areas: 1) the prediction of potential global change effects on ecosystems and their below- and aboveground structures and 2) the quantifying of ecosystem processes in semiarid and arid ecosystems.

Current teaching responsibilities include Computer Applications in Biology, various Plant Ecology courses, and Ecological Climatology, co-taught with a member of ASU’s Geography Department.

Selected Publications

Klopatek, J.M. Litterfall and fine root biomass contribution to nutrient dynamics in second- and old-growth Douglas-fir ecosystems. Submitted to Plant & Soil.

Klopatek, J.M., M.J. Barry, and D.W. Johnson. (2006). Potential Canopy Interception of Nitrogen in the Pacific Northwest, USA. Forest Ecology and Management. In Press

Harmon, M.E., Bible, K., Ryan, M.J., Shaw, D., Chen, H., Klopatek, J. (2004). Production, respiration, and overall carbon balance in an old-growth Pseudotsuga/Tsuga forest. Ecosystems &:498-512.

Shaw, D.C., Franklin, J.F., Klopatek, J.M., Freeman, E., Bible, K., Newton, T., Greene, S., Wade-Murphy, J. (2004). Ecological setting of the Wind River old-growth forest. Ecosystems 7:427-439.

Conant, R.T., P. Dal Betta, J.M. Klopatek, and C.C. Klopatek. (2003). Factors controlling soil respiration in semiarid soils. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 36:945-951.

Klopatek, J.M. (2002). Belowground carbon pools and processes in different age stands of Douglas-fir. Tree Physiology 22: 197-204.

Koerner, Brenda A., and Jeffrey M. Klopatek. (2001). Sources of anthropogenic and Natural CO2 Efflux in an Arid Urban Environment. Environmental Pollution 116:S45-S51.

Klopatek, JM, and RH Gardner. (1999). Landscape Ecological Analysis: Issues and Applications. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Murphy, KL, JM Klopatek, and CC Klopatek. (1998). The effects of litter quality and climate on decomposition along an elevational gradient. Ecological Application 8:1061-1071.

Balling, RC, Jr., JM Klopatek, ML Hildebrandt, CK Moritz, and CJ Watts. (1998). Impacts of land degradation on the historical temperature records from the Sonoran Desert. Climatic Change 40:669-681.

Johnson, DW, RB Susfalk, RA Dalgren, and JM Klopatek. (1998). Fire is more important than water for nitrogen fluxes in semi-arid forests. Environmental Science and Policy 1:79-86.

Conant, RT, JM Klopatek, RC Malin, and CC Klopatek. (1998). Carbon Pools and fluxes along an environmental gradient in northern Arizona. Biogeochemistry 43:43-61.

Klopetek, JM, and JM Francis. (1998). Spatial pattern analysis techniques. IN: GIS solutions in natural resource management (S Morain ed), Onward Press, Santa Fe, NM.

Malin, RC, and JM Klopatek. (1998). Estimating precipitation in topographically diverse semiarid environments. IN: Proceedings of the Eight Conference on Mountain Climatology. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA.

Klopatek, JM, JM King, RT Conant, KL Murphy, RC Malin, and CC Klopatek. (1998). Implications of spatial and temporal patterns of carbon pools and fluxes across a semiarid gradient. Landscape and Urban Planning 39:309-317.