Scholars@Duke
Lydia Olander

Lydia Olander

Adjunct Professor in the Division of Environmental Social Systems
Environmental Social Systems
lydia.olander@duke.edu
Box 90335, Durham, NC 27708-0328
2117 Campus Drive, Rm 212, Durham, NC 27708

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Ecosystem technology (ecotech): Harnessing natural processes to address global challenges.

Journal article Science advances · May 2026 Over the past 80 years, biotechnology has advanced agriculture, health care, and economic development by harnessing biological processes from the organism inward, i.e., from the organ system to the molecular scale. Today's global challenges, including biod ... Full text Cite

A Standardized Definition of Rapid Evidence Assessment for Environmental Applications

Journal article Conservation Letters · January 1, 2026 Evidence assessment—identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing data and findings from previous studies—is important to inform environmental decision-making but can be slow and resource intensive. Users seeking efficiency have developed multiple definitions ... Full text Cite

Environmental and Ecosystem Services in Benefit–Cost Analysis

Journal article Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · June 1, 2025 The 2023 reissuance of US Office of Management and Budget Circular A-4 and related federal activities to modernize regulation have elevated the importance of services from the environment—broadly known as ecosystem services—and have clarified guidance for ... Full text Cite

Advancing consistent socio-economic monitoring of coastal ecosystem restoration through collaborative metric development

Journal article Communications Earth and Environment · December 1, 2024 Ecological restoration programs increasingly aim to provide socio-economic and environmental benefits. However, monitoring of socio-economic outcomes of these programs lags behind monitoring of ecological outcomes. Socio-economic methods are less establish ... Full text Cite

Sea level rise drives carbon and habitat loss in the U.S. mid-Atlantic coastal zone

Journal article Plos Climate · June 1, 2022 Coastal marshes and seagrass beds store millions of tons of carbon in their sediments and sequester carbon at higher per-area rates than most terrestrial ecosystems. There is substantial interest in this “blue carbon” as a carbon mitigation strategy, despi ... Full text Cite

Connecting ecosystem services science and policy in the field

Journal article Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · November 1, 2021 Conservation and provision of ecosystem services (ES) have been adopted as high-level policy in many countries, yet there has been surprisingly little application of these broad policies in the field; for example, ES are rarely considered in permit issuanc ... Full text Cite

Infrastructure investment must incorporate Nature's lessons in a rapidly changing world

Journal article One Earth · October 22, 2021 Infrastructure must become more resilient as the global climate changes and also more affordable in the economic and political context of a post-COVID world. We can solve this dual challenge and drive global infrastructure investment into a more sustainabl ... Full text Cite

Integrating programmatic expertise from across the us and canada to model and guide leadership training for graduate students in sustainability

Journal article Sustainability Switzerland · August 2, 2021 It is critical that future sustainability leaders possess the skills and aptitudes needed to tackle increasingly ‘wicked’ challenges. While much has been done to identify this need, inadequate Leadership Training for graduate students in Sustainability (LT ... Full text Cite

Exploring the use of ecosystem services conceptual models to account for the benefits of public lands: An example from national forest planning in the United States

Journal article Forests · March 1, 2021 A shared understanding of the benefits and tradeoffs to people from alternative land management strategies is critical to successful decision-making for managing public lands and fostering shared stewardship. This study describes an approach for identifyin ... Full text Cite

A practice-oriented approach to foster private landowner participation in ecosystem service conservation and restoration at a landscape scale

Journal article Ecosystem Services · December 1, 2020 Large landscape conservation planning often requires managers to coordinate with private landowners, especially in regions like the southern and western U.S. where private landownership dominates. It is often difficult to design conservation programs that ... Full text Cite

Graphical models and the challenge of evidence-based practice in development and sustainability

Journal article Environmental Modelling and Software · August 1, 2020 Governments and social benefit organizations are expected to consider evidence in decision-making. In development and sustainability, evidence spans disciplines and methodological traditions and is often inconclusive. Graphical models are widely promoted t ... Full text Cite

Corrigendum to “Testing ecosystem accounting in the United States: A case study for the Southeast” [Ecosyst. Serv. 43 (2020) 101099] (Ecosystem Services (2020) 43, (S2212041620300413), (10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101099))

Journal article Ecosystem Services · August 1, 2020 The authors regret the use of an incorrect citation reported in the article as “Landers (2015).” The correct citation should be Landers et al. (2016) (full citation below). Landers, D., Nahlik, A., Rhodes, C., 2016. The beneficiary perspective: benefits an ... Full text Cite

Testing ecosystem accounting in the United States: A case study for the Southeast

Journal article Ecosystem Services · June 1, 2020 Ecosystem accounts, as formalized by the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounts (SEEA EEA), have been compiled in a number of countries, yet there have been few attempts to develop them for the U.S. We explore the poten ... Full text Cite

Forecasting ecosystem services to guide coastal wetland rehabilitation decisions

Journal article Ecosystem Services · October 1, 2019 Coastal wetlands provide diverse ecosystem services such as flood protection and recreational value. However, predicting changes in ecosystem service value fr0k from restoration or management is challenging because environmental systems are highly complex ... Full text Cite

Aligning evidence generation and use across health, development, and environment

Journal article Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · August 1, 2019 Although health, development, and environment challenges are interconnected, evidence remains fractured across sectors due to methodological and conceptual differences in research and practice. Aligned methods are needed to support Sustainable Development ... Full text Cite

Leveraging Big Data Towards Functionally-Based, Catchment Scale Restoration Prioritization.

Journal article Environmental management · December 2018 The persistence of freshwater degradation has necessitated the growth of an expansive stream and wetland restoration industry, yet restoration prioritization at broad spatial extents is still limited and ad-hoc restoration prevails. The River Basin Restora ... Full text Cite

Ecosystem services and U.S. stormwater planning: An approach for improving urban stormwater decisions

Journal article Environmental Science and Policy · October 1, 2018 Green stormwater infrastructure (GI) is gaining traction as a viable complement to traditional “gray” infrastructure in cities across the United States. As cities struggle with decisions to replace deteriorating stormwater infrastructure in the face of loo ... Full text Cite

Cross-discipline evidence principles for sustainability policy.

Journal article Nature sustainability · September 2018 Evidence-based approaches to sustainability challenges must draw on knowledge from the environment, development and health communities. To be practicable, this requires an approach to evidence that is broader and less hierarchical than the standards often ... Full text Cite

Evidence-Based Causal Chains for Linking Health, Development, and Conservation Actions.

Journal article Bioscience · March 2018 Sustainability challenges for nature and people are complex and interconnected, such that effective solutions require approaches and a common theory of change that bridge disparate disciplines and sectors. Causal chains offer promising approaches to achiev ... Full text Open Access Cite

Facilitating markets and mitigation: A systematic review of early-action incentives in the U.S.

Journal article Land Use Policy · March 1, 2018 Early action refers to activities undertaken prior to a regulatory program or generation of services prior to mitigation of impacts elsewhere. In U.S. environmental markets, early action could reduce lags in environmental performance, improve outcomes, and ... Full text Cite

Benefit relevant indicators: Ecosystem services measures that link ecological and social outcomes

Journal article Ecological Indicators · February 1, 2018 There is a growing movement in government, environmental non-governmental organizations and the private sector to include ecosystem services in decision making. Adding ecosystem services into assessments implies measuring how much a change in ecological co ... Full text Cite

Fertilizer management and environmental factors drive n2o and no3 losses in corn: A meta-analysis

Journal article Soil Science Society of America Journal · September 1, 2017 Effective management of nitrogen (N) in agricultural landscapes must account for how nitrate (NO3) leaching and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions respond to local field-scale management and to broader environmental drivers such as climate and soil. ... Full text Cite

So you want your research to be relevant? Building the bridge between ecosystem services research and practice

Journal article Ecosystem Services · August 1, 2017 There is growing demand for information regarding the impacts of decisions on ecosystem services and human benefits. Despite the large and growing quantity of published ecosystem services research, there remains a substantial gap between this research and ... Full text Open Access Cite

A research agenda for ecosystem services in American environmental and land use planning

Journal article Cities · February 1, 2017 We assess pathways for integrating the ecosystem services concept into American land use and environmental planning. Ecosystem services are the beneficial products that functioning ecosystems provide to human society. Building on Ian McHarg's influential e ... Full text Cite

Identifying and assessing the application of ecosystem services approaches in environmental policies and decision making.

Journal article Integrated environmental assessment and management · January 2017 The presumption is that ecosystem services (ES) approaches provide a better basis for environmental decision making than do other approaches because they make explicit the connection between human well-being and ecosystem structures and processes. However, ... Full text Cite

Mainstreaming ecosystem services into decision making

Journal article Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · December 1, 2014 Full text Cite

Working together: A call for inclusive conservation

Journal article Nature · November 6, 2014 Full text Cite

Synthesis and Review: Advancing agricultural greenhouse gas quantification

Journal article Environmental Research Letters · July 1, 2014 Reducing emissions of agricultural greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane and nitrous oxide, and sequestering carbon in the soil or in living biomass can help reduce the impact of agriculture on climate change while improving productivity and reducing re ... Full text Cite

The Most Important Current Research Questions in Urban Ecosystem Services

Journal article Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum · 2014 Link to item Cite

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting agricultural management for climate change in developing countries: providing the basis for action.

Journal article Global change biology · January 2014 Agriculture in developing countries has attracted increasing attention in international negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for both adaptation to climate change and greenhouse gas mitigation. However, there is lim ... Full text Cite

Sustainability and earth resources: Life cycle assessment modeling

Journal article Business Strategy and the Environment · November 1, 2013 Corporations are facing increasing risks associated with ecosystems from both natural drivers, such as climate change, as well as institutional drivers resulting from retailers and brands, increasingly making supplier decisions based on life cycle reportin ... Full text Cite

Advancing agricultural greenhouse gas quantification*

Journal article Environmental Research Letters · January 1, 2013 Full text Cite

Operationalizing REDD+: Scope of reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation

Journal article Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability · December 1, 2012 This paper discusses the operational issues associated with the expanding scope of reduced emissions from deforestation (RED) as forest degradation, conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) and other sectors and activities are added. Th ... Full text Cite

The potential role for management of U.S. public lands in greenhouse gas mitigation and climate policy.

Journal article Environmental management · March 2012 Management of forests, rangelands, and wetlands on public lands, including the restoration of degraded lands, has the potential to increase carbon sequestration or reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions beyond what is occurring today. In this paper we discu ... Full text Cite

Sustainability and Earth Resources: Life Cycle Assessment Modeling

Journal article Business Strategy and the Environment · 2012 Cite

Institutions and policies to protect rural livelihoods in REDD + regimes

Journal article Global Environmental Politics · January 1, 2010 Full text Open Access Cite

Reference scenarios for deforestation and forest degradation in support of REDD: A review of data and methods

Journal article Environmental Research Letters · June 1, 2008 Global climate policy initiatives are now being proposed to compensate tropical forest nations for reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). These proposals have the potential to include developing countries more actively ... Full text Cite

Ecosystem structure throughout the brazilian amazon from landsat observations and automated spectral unmixing

Journal article Earth Interactions · December 1, 2005 The Brazilian Amazon forest and cerrado savanna encompasses a region of enormous ecological, climatic, and land-use variation. Satellite remote sensing is the only tractable means to measure the biophysical attributes of vegetation throughout this region, ... Cite

Surface soil changes following selective logging in an eastern amazon forest

Journal article Earth Interactions · December 1, 2005 In the Brazilian Amazon, selective logging is second only to forest conversion in its extent. Conversion to pasture or agriculture tends to reduce soil nutrients and site productivity over time unless fertilizers are added. Logging removes nutrients in bol ... Cite

Short-term controls over inorganic phosphorus during soil and ecosystem development

Journal article Soil Biology and Biochemistry · April 1, 2005 Geochemical sorption and biological demand control phosphorus (P) retention and availability in soils. Sorption and the biota predominantly utilize the same inorganic form of P, from the same soil pool, on the same time scale, and thus are likely to compet ... Full text Cite

Surface soil changes following selective logging in an eastern Amazon forest

Journal article Earth Interactions · January 1, 2005 In the Brazilian Amazon, selective logging is second only to forest conversion in its extent. Conversion to pasture or agriculture tends to reduce soil nutrients and site productivity over time unless fertilizers are added. Logging removes nutrients in bol ... Full text Cite

Ecosystem structure throughout the Brazilian Amazon from Landsat observations and automated spectral unmixing

Journal article Earth Interactions · January 1, 2005 The Brazilian Amazon forest and cerrado savanna encompasses a region of enormous ecological, climatic, and land-use variation. Satellite remote sensing is the only tractable means to measure the biophysical attributes of vegetation throughout this region, ... Full text Cite

Pasture degradation in the central Amazon: Linking changes in carbon and nutrient cycling with remote sensing

Journal article Global Change Biology · May 1, 2004 The majority of deforested land in the Amazon Basin has become cattle pasture, making forest-to-pasture conversion an important contributor to the carbon (C) and climate dynamics of the region. However, our understanding of biogeochemical dynamics in pastu ... Full text Cite

Biological and geochemical sinks for phosphorus in soil from a wet tropical forest

Journal article Ecosystems · January 1, 2004 In many tropical and volcanic soils, phosphorus (P) availability is strongly influenced by geochemical sorption, which binds P to soil minerals. The aim of this study was to determine whether biological demand or soil sorption strength was the primary cont ... Full text Cite

Regulation of soil phosphatase and chitinase activity by N and P availability

Journal article Biogeochemistry · January 1, 2000 Soil microorganisms and plants produce enzymes that mineralize organically bound nutrients. When nutrient availability is low, the biota may be able to increase production of these enzymes to enhance the supply of inorganic nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). ... Full text Cite

Impacts of disturbance initiated by road construction in a subtropical cloud forest in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico

Journal article Forest Ecology and Management · September 16, 1998 The impacts of road construction and the spread of exotic vegetation, which are common threats to upper elevation tropical forests, were evaluated in the subtropical cloud forests of Puerto Rico. The vegetation, soil and microclimate of 6-month-old roadfil ... Full text Cite

Changes in leaf structure in relation to crown position and tree size of Betula papyrifera within fire-origin stands of interior cedar-hemlock

Journal article Canadian Journal of Botany · January 1, 1998 Dimensions of anatomical and morphological attributes of leaves can influence physiological response to changes in environment over time. Linking structural attributes of leaves to crown position and tree size within naturally developing cohorts of trees c ... Full text Cite