Understanding forest ecosystems, restoration, and sustainable markets for ecosystem services may be key to restoring them. The team this year is considering research that includes using novel technologies such as remote sensing, LiDAR, and AI approaches to investigate forest restoration and resilience, quantify ecosystem services, and manage watershed restoration and habitat connectivity projects.
Innovative Direction
The Biodiversity Credits Team aims to quantify and leverage both the ecological and economic benefits of this recent restoration intervention. We’ll take a multifaceted approach, including comparative analysis of pre- and post-restoration LiDAR data following the bridge removal, macroinvertebrate community surveys, and land assessments to evaluate increases in ecosystem service productivity. Through this comprehensive evaluation, the Team seeks to develop a standardized metric for assessing similar stream restoration projects, ultimately strengthening the demonstrated value of these initiatives for policymakers, government agencies, and local communities.
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Advisor
Advisor
2nd Year Lead
1st Year Lead
Activities
We are collaborating closely with Duke Forest on the recent restoration of New Hope Creek that involved removing the Billy Erwin Dam and the concrete bridge to restore natural stream function, reduce erosion, and ultimately enhance habitat quality. The project also included the installation of a clear-span bridge, allowing people to cross the creek without obstructing water flow and reducing the risk of flood-related road closures.
Project: Community-Led Invasive Fig Buttercup (Ficaria verna) Removal
Holly and Richard Reid, alumni of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, invited us to join them on their annual fig buttercup removal efforts across Durham, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough, NC. The couple, alongside a coalition of several other community members, have been a unified front in keeping this invasive ephemeral at bay for over seven years. Our team aims to continue aiding in their efforts throughout this spring and into subsequent seasons. In addition, we hope to assess the annual differences in fig buttercup distribution across treatment sites using ArcGIS QuickCapture data from the past five years.
Project: New Hope Creek Restoration Site
The Team is working closely with Duke Forest to assess the impact of the recent removal of the Billy Erwin Dam and the concrete bridge. Currently, the team is devising long-term vegetation surveys and assisting with existing macroinvertebrate monitoring. In our assessment, we are also examining LiDAR imagery from pre- and post-removal.
Project: Annual Research Triangle BioBlitz Competition
This year, the Biodiversity Credits Team had the opportunity to lead Duke’s efforts in the BioBlitz competition against UNC and NC State. The event took place on April 27th, 2026, at Duke’s Reclamation Pond.
The event was hosted by the Carolina Biodiversity Collaborative and was a friendly inter-institutional competition to see who can document the most biodiversity on campus as part of iNaturalist’s broader City Nature Challenge.
In the end, Duke took 2nd place with an impressive 147 observations and 71 unique species—all in just one afternoon! We’re proud of our team’s effort and already looking ahead to the next round. First place, we’re coming for you!
Team Poster: March 2026