Lydia Olander, director of the Nicholas Institute's Ecosystem Services Program, spoke with The Chronicle about Duke University's new partnership with the Network for Engineering With Nature (N-EWN). Olander explained how existing Duke programs will benefit from N-EWN, how Duke's expertise can contribute to other partners in the network, and why nature-based solutions are critical to addressing the climate crisis.

The New York Climate Exchange on Governors Island will be a laboratory for universities, corporations and public interest groups to develop solutions to the global climate crisis through education, research, workforce training, and community programs. During Climate Week NYC, several Duke experts explored Governors Island as part of a tour offered by the Exchange, Duke Today reports.

Duke University is bringing its expertise in environmental management, policy and engineering to an active community of researchers, practitioners and educators who are addressing major infrastructure challenges in the United States through “Engineering With Nature®.” The Nicholas Institute will lead Duke’s involvement in the Network for Engineering With Nature, working with faculty, staff and students across the university.

In an Aug. 23 webinar, White House officials provided an overview of new guidance that offers direction on how federal agencies can incorporate ecosystem services into their decision-making processes. The speakers also discussed how the guidance fits into a broader administration effort to acknowledge, account for and monitor ecosystem services and natural capital. The webinar was hosted by the National Ecosystem Services Partnership.

Duke University is one of 11 consortium members of the Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. Hosted by North Carolina State University for the next five years, the center provides actionable science to help Southeastern communities and ecosystems adapt to a changing climate.

Watch a recording of the July 27 panel event to hear from experts who detailed past examples and proposed concepts for financing nature-based solutions using green banks. This event was co-hosted by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center.

In the first post of a series on the Latitude blog, PLOS is highlighting how peer-reviewed research in its journals is helping to fill knowledge gaps identified by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Featured articles include a June 2022 study, by Nicholas Institute experts Katie Warnell and Lydia Olander and coauthor Carolyn Currin, that models how sea level rise in mid-Atlantic states could drive coastal marshes inland and release carbon in the process.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Nicholas Institute have designed a pair of online tools for conservation organizations and land trusts to evaluate the benefits of North Carolina's natural and working lands to climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation.

As rising sea levels cause marshes to move inland in six mid-Atlantic states, the coastal zone will not continue to serve as a carbon sink but release more carbon into the atmosphere, a new modeling study led by researchers at Duke University finds.

On Earth Day, the Biden Administration announced an initiative to develop national measures called natural capital accounts that connect the value of ecosystem services to economic performance. In a Q&A, Warnell offered some insights into natural capital accounting: what exactly it measures, how it can help decision makers, and the work that lies ahead to implement a national system.