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Harold N. Eyster, Ph.D.

Applied Climate Science Fellow

Colorado

A photo of owls.

Harold N. Eyster, Ph.D. Dr. Harold Eyster is an Applied Climate Science Fellow at The Nature Conservancy in Colorado. © TNC

Areas of Expertise

Interdisciplinary conservation science, socio-ecological justice, Bayesian modeling, social science

Learn more about Harold

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Biography

Dr. Harold Eyster is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist who investigates environmental issues by interrogating relationships among humans and nature. Using a transdisciplinary approach that draws on methods and ideas from Bayesian statistics, ecology, climate science, sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, and feminist and Indigenous studies, Harold studies how to marshal today’s salient human–nature relationships to enable more sustainable and equitable trajectories.

At TNC, Harold applies these interdisciplinary tools to ensure that wildlife and local communities can thrive amidst the rapid buildout of renewable energy infrastructure—such as transmission lines, wind turbines, and solar farms. These research findings help TNC prioritize land protection and engage on policies to support the renewable energy transition while also ensuring that the transition is wildlife-friendly, equitable, and protects human–nature relationships. Harold also works to make the field of conservation and the work that conservation does more equitable and inclusive, including through the Society for Conservation Biology’s Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force and through recognizing diverse relationships with nature.

Prior to joining TNC in 2023, Harold was a Gund Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Vermont where he worked with Dr. Brian Beckage and Dr. Rachelle Gould to investigate how cities can simultaneously and equitably mitigate climate change, adapt to intensifying heat waves, and conserve birds. Harold received an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard University and a Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia with Dr. Kai Chan where his research addressed how focusing on relationships among people and nature—so-called relational thinking—could better explain and solve today’s pressing environmental challenges. Harold brings a joy for birding, painting, and ultramarathon running into his research as much as possible, though he has yet to figure out a way of incorporating his enthusiasm for seitan cuisine. 


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Publications

Visit Harold’s Google Scholar page for an updated list of publications.

Peer-reviewed publications:

Jung, N., Eyster, H. N., Chan, K. M. A. (In Press). Re-Envisioning Urban Landscapes: Lichens, Liverworts, & Mosses Coexist Spontaneously With Us. Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. 

Eyster, H. N., Chan, K. M. A., Fletcher, M., Beckage, B. (2024). Space-for-time substitutions exaggerate urban bird–habitat ecological relationships. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93, 1854–1867. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14194

Phurisamban, R., Luna, E., Eyster, H. N., Chignell, S., Koppes, M. (In Press). Expanding the tent: Why and how environmental scientists should embrace reflexive practices. Ecosphere.

Sophia Winkler-Schor, Harold N. Eyster, Diele Lobo, Lauren Redmore, Andrew J. Wright, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, Victoria M. Lukasik, Wendy Chávez-Páez, Sarah Beard, Catherine Christen, Zoe Nyssa. (2024). Enhancing disciplinary diversity and inclusion in conservation science and practice using the Society for Conservation Biology. Conservation Biology, 38, e14395. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14395

Eyster, H. N., Rodríguez González, M., and Gould, R. K. (2024). Green gentrification & luxury effect: uniting isolated ideas towards just cities for people & nature. Ecosystems & People, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2024.2399621

Nyssa, Z., Winkler-Schor, S., Lobo, D., Eyster, H. N., Write, A. J. (2024). A Framework for Promoting Disciplinary Diversity and Inclusion Through Epistemic Justice. Conservation Biology, 38, e14409. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.14409

Kai M. A. Chan, Rachelle K. Gould, Rocío López de la Lama, and Eyster, H. N. (In Press). What if Cultural Ecosystem Services were Relational? A Research Agenda for Nature’s Contributions to Well-Being— and Human Action. Routledge Handbook on Cultural Ecosystem Services.

Gilbert, N. A., Kolbe, S., Eyster, H. N., Grinde, A. (2024). Internal range structure associated with range-limit population trends. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93, 1556–1566. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14168

Eyster, H. N., & Beckage, B. (2024). Applying a deep learning pipeline to classify land cover from low-quality historical rgb imagery. PeerJ Computer Science, 10, e2003. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.2003

Eyster, H. N., & Beckage, B. (2023). Arboreal urban cooling is driven by leaf area index, leaf boundary layer resistance, and dry leaf mass per leaf area: Evidence from a system dynamics model. Atmosphere, 14(3), 552. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14030552

Eyster, H. N., Naidoo, R., & Chan, K. M. A. (2023). Towards ecotourism that nurtures local visions for landscapes and wildlife. Animal Conservation, 26(4), 448–449. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12900

Eyster, H. N., Satterfield, T., & Chan, K. M. A. (2023). Empirical examples demonstrate how relational thinking might enrich science and practice. People and Nature. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10453

Chaplin-Kramer, R., Neugarten, R. A., Gonzalez-Jimenez, D., Ahmadia, G., Baird, T. D., Crane, N., Delgoulet, E., Eyster, H. N., Kurashima, N., Llopis, J. C., Millington, A., Pawlowska-Mainville, A., Rulmal, J., Saunders, F., Shrestha, S., Vaughan, M. B., Winter, K. B., Wongbusarakum, S., & Pascual, U. (2023). Transformation for inclusive conservation: Evidence on values, decisions, and impacts in protected areas. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 64, 101347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust. 2023.101347

Gilbert, N. A., Eyster, H. N., & Zipkin, E. F. (2023). Propagating uncertainty in ecological models to understand causation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 21(3), 114–115. https://doi.org/10. 1002/fee.2610

Gould, R. K., Soares, T. M., Arias-Arévalo, P., Cantú-Fernandez, M., Baker, D., Eyster, H. N., Kwon, R., Prox, L., Rode, J., Suarez, A., Vatn, A., & Zúñiga-Barragán, J. (2023). The role of value(s) in theories of human behavior. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 64, 101355. https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.cosust.2023.101355

Eyster, H. N., & Beckage, B. (2022). Conifers may ameliorate urban heat waves better than broadleaf trees: Evidence from Vancouver, Canada. Atmosphere, 13(5), 830. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13050830

Eyster, H. N., Naidoo, R., & Chan, K. M. A. (2022). Not just the big five: African ecotourists prefer parks brimming with bird diversity. Animal Conservation. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12816

Eyster, H. N., Olmsted, P., Naidoo, R., & Chan, K. M. A. (2022). Motivating conservation even for widespread species using genetic uniqueness and relational values. Biological Conservation, 266, 109438. https: //doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109438

Eyster, H. N., Satterfield, T., & Chan, K. M. (2022). Why people do what they do: An interdisciplinary synthesis of human action theories. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 47(1). https://doi. org/10.1146/annurev-environ-020422-125351

Eyster, H. N., Srivastava, D. S., Kreitzman, M., & Chan, K. M. A. (2022). Functional traits and metacommunity theory reveal that habitat filtering and competition maintain bird diversity in a human shared landscape. Ecography. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06240

Kreitzman, M., Eyster, H. N., Mitchell, M., Czajewska, A., Keeley, K., Smukler, S., Sullivan, N., Verster, A., & Chan, K. M. A. (2022). Woody perennial polycultures in the U.S. Midwest enhance biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Ecosphere, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3890

Eyster, H. N., & Wolkovich, E. M. (2021). Comparisons in the native and introduced ranges reveal little evidence of climatic adaptation in germination traits. Climate Change Ecology, 2, 100023. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ecochg.2021.100023

Chan, K. M. A., Boyd, D. R., Gould, R. K., Jetzkowitz, J., Liu, J., Muraca, B., Naidoo, R., Olmsted, P., Satterfield, T., Selomane, O., Singh, G. G., Sumaila, R., Ngo, H. T., Boedhihartono, A. K., Agard, J., Aguiar, A. P. D., Armenteras, D., Balint, L., Barrington-Leigh, C., Cheung, W. W. L., Díaz, S., Driscoll, J., Esler, K., Eyster, H. N., Gregr, E. J., Hashimoto, S., Pedraza, G. C. H., Hickler, T., Kok, M., Lazarova, T., Mohamed, A. A. A., Murray-Hudson, M., O‘Farrell, P., Palomo, I., Saysel, A. K., Seppelt, R., Settele, J., Strassburg, B., Xue, D., & Brondízio, E. S. (2020). Levers and leverage points for pathways to sustainability. People and Nature, 2(3), 693–717. https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10124

Stoddard, M. C., Eyster, H. N., Hogan, B. G., Morris, D. H., Soucy, E. R., & Inouye, D. W. (2020). Wild hummingbirds discriminate nonspectral colors. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(26), 15112–15122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1919377117

Stoddard, M. C., Miller, A. E., Eyster, H. N., Akkaynak, D., & Stoddard, M. C. (2018). I see your false colours: how artificial stimuli appear to different animal viewers. Interface Focus, 1(9). https://doi. org/10.1098/rsfs.2018.0053

Stoddard, M. C., Kupán, K., Eyster, H. N., Rojas-Abreu, W., Cruz-López, M., Serrano-Meneses, M. A., & Küpper, C. (2016). Camouflage and Clutch Survival in Plovers and Terns. Scientific Reports, 6(January), 32059. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep32059

United Nations Reports, Contributing Author

Barton, D. N., Chaplin-Kramer, B., Lazos Chavero, E., Van Noordwijk, M., Engel, S., Girvan, A., Hahn, T., Leimona, B., Lele, S., Muradian, R., Niamir, A., Ozkaynak, B., Pawlowska-Mainville, A., Ungar, P.,¨ Nelson, S., Aydin, C. I., Iranah, P., Cantú, M., & González-Jiménez, D. (2022, July). Chapter 4. Value expression in decision-making. (J. C. Cárdenas & S. Baker, Eds.; tech. rep.). IPBES Secretariat. Bonn, Germany. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.6522261

Chan, K. M. A., Agard, J., Liu, J., Aguiar, A. P. D. d., Armenteras, D., Boedhihartono, A. K., Cheung, W. W. L., Hashimoto, S., Pedraza, G. C. H., Hickler, T., Jetzkowitz, J., Kok, M., Murray-Hudson, M., O’Farrell, P., Satterfield, T., Saysel, A. K., Seppelt, R., Strassburg, B., Xue, D., Selomane, O., Balint, L., & Mohamed, A. (2019). Pathways towards a sustainable future. In E. S. Brondízio, J. Settele, S. Díaz, & H. Ngo (Eds.), Global assessment report of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services. IPBES. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3832100

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