Natural Resources Faculty Members

Sarah Johnson

Back to search results

Title: Assistant Professor of Natural Resources
Office Location: CSE 108
Phone: 715-682-1550
Email: sjohnson@northland.edu

Education

• Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.S. East Carolina University
• B.S. Northland College

Profile

I am thrilled to re-join the Northland College community as an Assistant Professor of Natural Resources and Biology starting Fall 2011. It is exciting to be able to teach field botany and ecology courses at a small liberal arts college that places a strong emphasis on natural history knowledge and application. While I enjoy Northland’s small campus, I enjoy even more the seemingly endless number of classrooms within the surrounding landscape. I am eager to spend time with students in hardwood swamps, pine barrens, bogs, mesic forests, sedge meadows, beaches, and other Northwoods gems.

My research interests largely focus on long-term dynamics and patterns of diversity and composition in plant communities of the Great Lakes region. To interpret these patterns, I consider the roles of multiple interacting drivers of ecosystem changes at local and landscape scales including succession, habitat fragmentation, herbivory, pest invasions, changes in natural disturbance regimes, and climate change. To provide a richer baseline for tracking future changes in Great Lakes ecosystems, I have worked closely with the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to assist in the development of protocols for monitoring terrestrial vegetation in nine National Parks throughout the Great Lakes region. I look forward to working with Northland students and faculty to pursue other meaningful collaborations on projects with the extensive network of natural resource agencies and organizations in the region.

You can view my website here.

Research

• Johnson, S.E., K.L. Amatangelo, P. Townsend, and D.M. Waller. The relationship of local environment and landscape configuration with current patterns and 55-year changes in plant species diversity and composition in floodplain forests. Ecography, in prep.
• Johnson, S.E., E.M. Mudrak, and D.M. Waller. Long term shifts in diversity and community homogenization in the riparian forests of southern Wisconsin. American Midland Naturalist, in prep.
• Johnson, S.E., and D.M. Waller. 55-year changes in lowland forest tree communities in central and southern Wisconsin. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, in prep.
• Waller, D.M., K.L. Amatangelo, S.E. Johnson, and D.A. Rogers. Plant community survey and resurvey data from the Wisconsin Plant Ecology Laboratory. Biodiversity and Ecology, in review.
• Mudrak, E.L., S.E. Johnson, & D.M. Waller. 2009. Forty-seven year changes in vegetation at the Apostle Islands: Effects of deer on forest understory. Natural Areas Journal 29: 167-176.
• Johnson, S.E., E.L. Mudrak, E.A. Beever, S. Sanders, & D.M. Waller. 2008. Comparing power among three sampling methods for monitoring vegetation. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38: 143-156.
• Sanders, S., S.E. Johnson, & D.M. Waller. 2007. General Vegetation monitoring protocol for the Great Lakes Network, Version 1.0. National Park Service, Great Lakes Network, Ashland, Wisconsin.
• Johnson, S.E., D.M. Waller, S. Sanders, & E.A. Beever. 2007. Standard operating procedure #14 data summary and analysis. In general vegetation monitoring protocol for the Great Lakes Network, Version 1.0. National Park Service, Great Lakes Network, Ashland, Wisconsin.
• Johnson, S.E., E.L. Mudrak, & D.M. Waller. 2006. A comparison of sampling methodologies for long-term forest vegetation monitoring in the Great Lakes Network National Parks. National Park Service, Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network, Ashland, WI. Technical Report: GLKN/2006/03. 140 pp.
• Waller, D.M., S.E. Johnson, R.J. Collins, & E.W. Williams. 2009. Threats posed by ungulate herbivory to forest structure and plant diversity in the Upper Great Lakes Region and a review of methods to assess those threats. National Park Service, Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network, Ashland, WI. Technical Report: GLKN/2009/01. 53 p.
• Jolls, C.L., J.D. Sellars, S.E. Johnson, & C.A. Wigent. 2004. Restore seabeach amaranth: A federally threatened species habitat assessment and restoration of Amaranthus pumilus (Amaranthaceae) using remote sensing data. National Park Service Final Report. NRPP CAHA-N-018.000. Outer Banks Group, Manteo, North Carolina, unpubl. report. 112 pp.

Back to search results