Internship with Duke Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability

We are looking for a student intern to support our work developing metrics to monitor the effects of nature-based adaptation projects on community risk reduction and species/habitat climate adaptation.

Nature-based adaptation projects involve the protection, restoration, or management of natural or seminatural ecosystems to help nature and people adapt to climate change. As governments, funders, and communities increasingly look to nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, it is essential to understand how effective these projects can be in providing the multiple benefits desired. This is particularly important when these projects are intended to reduce community risk—insufficient information about risk reduction is one of the most-cited reasons that nature-based projects are not used. It is also critical to understand how nature-based projects are affecting habitats’ and species’ ability to adapt to climate change, since these projects are often intended to address biodiversity loss. These outcomes are not frequently measured: project monitoring tends to focus on how successfully the project was implemented and on a few ecological outcomes that do not directly address the resilience of affected habitats and wildlife. Our project will address these gaps by developing a set of metrics to measure the performance and reliability of nature-based projects for species climate adaptation and community risk reduction. In this phase of the project, we are focused on coastal wetland restoration (salt marsh and mangroves) and inland watershed management projects (e.g., floodplain reconnection, levee setbacks, wetland restoration).

The student intern will support this effort primarily through interviews with nature-based project staff and researchers who conduct monitoring and on-the-ground measurements of project outcomes. Goals are to understand what is currently measured to evaluate projects, assess how that aligns with our draft metrics lists, and get feedback on the feasibility and utility of our recommended metrics. Additional tasks may include literature review to support metrics development, identifying methods for measuring selected metrics, participating in meetings with relevant subject matter experts, and collaborating on design for a system to organize metrics data.

This student will work with Nicholas Institute staff under the guidance of program director Lydia Olander and US Fish and Wildlife Service partner Todd Jones-Farrand. The student may also work with faculty and student collaborators at Duke and external collaborators.  This is a full-time (40 hours/week), paid position for summer 2025.  Work will likely be conducted in a hybrid model, using a combination of remote work and regular in-person meetings, but there may be options for primarily remote or in-person work depending on student preference. 

Key Tasks

Skills

To Apply

To apply, please send your resume or CV and a cover letter to Katie Warnell, katie.warnell@duke.edu. We will begin interviews on February 20th on a rolling basis.