Diane Marie McKnight

  • Distinguished Professor
  • ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
  • ENGINEERING SCIENCE
Address

Office: SEEC S254C

Education:

  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering, MIT (1975)
  • M.S. Civil Engineering, MIT (1978)
  • Ph.D. Environmental Engineering, MIT (1979)

Honors and Distinctions:

  • Distinguished Lecturer for Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), 2019-2020
  • Distinguished Professor University of Colorado Boulder
  • Robert Horton Medal, American Geophysical Union
  • John Dalton Medal, European Geophysical Union
  • American Geophysical Union, Hydrology Career Award
  • Distinguished Research Lectureship, CU-Boulder
  • US Geological Survey: Meritorious Service Award
  • American Geophysical Union: Fellow
  • National Academy of Engineering: Member
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science: Fellow
  • Humic Sciences and Technology Conference XI: Honorary Chair
  • American Geophysical Union: Langbein Lecturer

Professional Affiliations:

  • International Humic Substances Society
  • American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
  • American Geophysical Union
  • Society of Freshwater Science
  • American Chemical Society
  • Phycological Society of America

Interests:

  • Limnology, aquatic ecology, reactive transport of metals and organic material in streams and rivers

Recent Publications:

  1. Magliozzi L.J., Matiasek S.J., Alpers C.N., Korak J., McKnight D., Foster A.L., Ryan J.N., Roth D.A., Ku P., Tsui M.T.-K., Chow A.T., and Webster J.P., 2024. Wildland-urban interface wildfire increases metal contributions to stormwater runoff in Paradise, California. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, doi:10.1039/d3em00298e.
  2. Stanish, L. F., Kohler, T. J., Darling, J., McKnight, D. M. 2024. Drifting along: using diatoms to track the contribution of microbial mats to particulate organic matter transport in a glacial meltwater stream in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. FRONT. MICROBIOL. 15:1352666. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1352666
  3. Manning, A. H., Petach, T. N., Runkel, R. L., McKnight, D. M. 2024. Climate‐ driven increases in stream metal concentrations in mineralized watersheds throughout the Colorado Rocky Mountains, USA. WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, 60, e2023WR036062. https:// doi.org/10.1029/2023WR036062
  4. Kohler, T.J., Singley, J.G., Wlostowski, A.N., McKnight, D.M.,. Nitrogen fixation facilitates stream microbial mat biomass across the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Biogeochemistry (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01069-0
  5. Watson, K.E.; McKnight, D.M. Riparian Bird Occupancy in a Mountain Watershed in the Colorado Mineral Belt Appears Resilient to Climate-Change-Driven Increases in Metals and Rare Earth Elements in Water and Aquatic Macroinvertebrates. Diversity 2023, 15, 712. https:// doi.org/10.3390/d15060712
  6. Egan, J. K., McKnight, D. M., Bowman, M. M., SanClements, M. D., Gallo, A. C., Hatten, J. A., & Matosziuk, L. M. (2023). Identifying photochemical alterations of dissolved pyrogenic organic matter using fluorescence spectroscopy. Aquatic Sciences, 85(2). doi:10.1007/s00027-022-00919-7
  7. Chin, Y. -P., McKnight, D. M., D’Andrilli, J., Brooks, N., Cawley, K., Guerard, J., . . . Reckhow, D. (2023). Identification of next-generation International Humic Substances Society reference materials for advancing the understanding of the role of natural organic matter in the Anthropocene. Aquatic Sciences, 85(1). doi:10.1007/s00027-022-00923-x
  8. Sherwell, S., Kalra, I., Li, W., McKnight, D. M., Priscu, J. C., & Morgan-Kiss, R. M. (2022). Antarctic lake phytoplankton and bacteria from near-surface waters exhibit high sensitivity to climate-driven disturbance. ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, 16 pages. doi:10.1111/1462-2920.16113
  9. Torrens, C. L., Gooseff, M. N., & McKnight, D. M. (2022). Dissolved Organic Carbon Chemostasis in Antarctic Polar Desert Streams. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-BIOGEOSCIENCES, 127(7), 17 pages. doi:10.1029/2021JG006649
  10. Gaiser, E. E., Kominoski, J. S., McKnight, D. M., Bahlai, C. A., Cheng, C., Record, S., . . . Sutter, L. A. (2022). Long-term ecological research and the COVID-19 anthropause: A window to understanding social-ecological disturbance. ECOSPHERE, 13(4), 21 pages. doi:10.1002/ecs2.4019
  11. Schulte, N. O., Khan, A. L., Smith, E. W., Zoumplis, A., Kaul, D., Allen, A. E., . . . McKnight, D. M. (2021). Blowin' in the wind: Dispersal, structure, and metacommunity dynamics of aeolian diatoms in the McMurdo Sound region, Antarctica. JOURNAL OF PHYCOLOGY, 58(1), 36-54. doi:10.1111/jpy.13223
  12.  Petach, T. N., Runkel, R. L., Cowie, R. M., & McKnight, D. M. (2021). Effects of hydrologic variability and remedial actions on first flush and metal loading from streams draining the Silverton caldera, 1992-2014. HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, 35(11), 15 pages. doi:10.1002/hyp.14412