Jonathan Bakker

About

Jonathan Bakker is a professor at the University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. His research focuses on the restoration and management of prairies, savannas, and forests, as well as long-term vegetation dynamics. He specializes in statistical methods for community ecology, contributing to understanding ecological processes through spatial analysis and modeling. His academic background includes a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Dordt University, an M.Sc. in Plant Ecology from the University of Regina, and a Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science (Forestry) from Northern Arizona University. Bakker is actively involved in developing strategies for prairie and forest restoration, native plant propagation for climate adaptation, and enhancing restoration effectiveness through adaptive management. He is currently accepting graduate students for the 2026-27 academic year, with research projects spanning forest restoration, native plant research, and climate adaptation strategies.

Research topics

• Ecology
• Biology
• Environmental science
• Agroforestry
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Geography
• Artificial Intelligence
• Econometrics
• Atmospheric sciences

Selected publications

• General destabilizing effects of eutrophication on grassland productivity at multiple spatial scales

  Nature Communications · 2020-10-23 · 168 citations

  articleOpen access

  Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant s…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Clarifying the effect of biodiversity on productivity in natural ecosystems with longitudinal data and methods for causal inference

  Nature Communications · 2023 · 123 citations

  Causal effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functions can be estimated using experimental or observational designs - designs that pose a tradeoff between drawing credible causal inferences from correlations and drawing generalizable inferences. Here, we develop a design that reduces this tradeoff and revisits the question of how plant species diversity affects productivity. Our design leverages longitudinal data from 43 grasslands in 11 countries and approaches borrowed from fields outside of ec…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Negative effects of nitrogen override positive effects of phosphorus on grassland legumes worldwide

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021-07-06 · 111 citations

  articleOpen access

  Anthropogenic nutrient enrichment is driving global biodiversity decline and modifying ecosystem functions. Theory suggests that plant functional types that fix atmospheric nitrogen have a competitive advantage in nitrogen-poor soils, but lose this advantage with increasing nitrogen supply. By contrast, the addition of phosphorus, potassium, and other nutrients may benefit such species in low-nutrient environments by enhancing their nitrogen-fixing capacity. We present a global-scale experiment…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Challenges and opportunities for grassland restoration: A global perspective of best practices in the era of climate change

  Global Ecology and Conservation · 2023 · 98 citations

  Grasslands are ubiquitous globally, and their conservation and restoration are critical to combat both the biodiversity and climate crises. There is increasing interest in implementing effective multifunctional grassland restoration to restore biodiversity concomitant with above- and belowground carbon sequestration, delivery of carbon credits and/or integration with land dedicated to solar panels. Other common multifunctional restoration considerations include improved forage value, erosion con…

  PublisherDOI

• Nutrient availability controls the impact of mammalian herbivores on soil carbon and nitrogen pools in grasslands

  Global Change Biology · 2020 · 87 citations

  Grasslands are subject to considerable alteration due to human activities globally, including widespread changes in populations and composition of large mammalian herbivores and elevated supply of nutrients. Grassland soils remain important reservoirs of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Herbivores may affect both C and N pools and these changes likely interact with increases in soil nutrient availability. Given the scale of grassland soil fluxes, such changes can have striking consequences for atmos…

  DOI

Recent grants

• The Role of Hemiparasites in Structuring Ecosystems

  NSF · $200k · 2016–2019

Frequent coauthors

• W. Stanley Harpole

  Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research

  71 shared

• Eric W. Seabloom

  University of Minnesota

  68 shared

• Elizabeth T. Borer

  University of Minnesota

  68 shared

• Juan Alberti

  National University of Mar del Plata

  61 shared

• Yann Hautier

  Utrecht University

  61 shared

• Carly J. Stevens

  Lancaster University

  60 shared

• Joslin L. Moore

  Monash University

  57 shared

• Andrew S. MacDougall

  University of Guelph

  54 shared

Labs

• Jonathan Bakker LabPI

Education

• PhD, Forestry

  Northern Arizona University

  2005

• MSc, Biology

  University of Regina

  1996

• BA, Biology, Environmental Studies

  Dordt University

  1994

Similar researchers at University of Washington

• Dan Brownh-65
• Joshua Lawlerh-64
• Aaron J. Wirsingh-53