Mark Johnston
Senior Landscape Ecologist | Geospatial Manager
Sustainable Landscapes Program
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About
Mark Johnston is a Senior Landscape Ecologist and Geospatial Manager for the Sustainable Landscapes program at the Energy Resources Center at the University of Illinois Chicago. In this role, Mark leads geospatial projects and analyses, develops, updates, and maintains geospatial database systems, including the Rights-of-Way as Habitat national database system, and conducts ecological research on rights-of-way corridors. He also leads the development of the Chicago Wilderness Green Initiatives geospatial database system, which helps to inform regional conservation decisions. Mark has published papers and designed applications that support pollinators and urban wildlife. For his doctorate, he researched the ecology of Awá indigenous people in Carchi, Ecuador, emphasizing their history, ecology, ethnobotany, kinship, and transfer of botanical knowledge.
Mark has research skills in urban landscape ecology, GIS applications and modeling, remote sensing, and designing geospatial database systems.
Selected Publications
Greg W. Mitchell… Mark K. Johnston, et. al. “Additional common milkweed would help Canada meet its share of the trinational eastern migratory monarch butterfly recovery target” FACETS 23 April (2025)
M. Johnston et. al. “Estimating milkweed abundance in metropolitan areas under existing and user-defined scenarios” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7: 210 (2019)
Education
University of Illinois Chicago, Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution. Thesis: Ecology of the Awá People: Historical Context, Tree Knowledge, Fuelwood Selection, and Land Use in Carchi, Ecuador
Knox College, B.A., Biological Sciences, including plant research experience, 1993
Licensures and Certifications
Remote Pilot License, Federal Aviation Administration, 4/5/2022 – Present
AARL Amateur Radio Technician License (call sign: KB1ENZ), 11/1/2019– Present