World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Ecology and Evolution
USA
2026
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Social Sciences and Humanities
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
124
Citations
93506
World Ranking
18
National Ranking
12

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
128
Citations
100169
World Ranking
70
National Ranking
25

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2026 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in United States Leader Award
  • 2010 - Member of the National Academy of Sciences
  • 2007 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Stephen Polasky is affiliated with the University of Minnesota in the United States and has contributed extensively to environmental science, with a particular focus on the intersection of economics, policy, and ecology. Their work encompasses various subfields such as global and planetary change, economics and econometrics, management, monitoring, policy and law, sociology and political science, and health, toxicology, and mutagenesis.

The primary topics covered in Polasky's research include:

  • Economic and Environmental Valuation
  • Land Use and Ecosystem Services
  • Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
  • Climate Change Policy and Economics
  • Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
  • Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
  • Forest Management and Policy

Recent papers authored or coauthored by Stephen Polasky include:

  • Our future in the Anthropocene biosphere, 2021, AMBIO
  • Using gross ecosystem product (GEP) to value nature in decision making, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Global trends in nature's contributions to people, 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Urbanization in and for the Anthropocene, 2021, npj Urban Sustainability
  • Air quality-related health damages of food, 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Stephen Polasky frequently collaborates with a set of coauthors, including:

  • Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
  • Justin A. Johnson
  • James Gerber
  • Saleh Mamun
  • Carl Folke

Their work is commonly published in journals such as:

  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal
  • Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Australian Economic Papers

In addition to articles, Stephen Polasky has contributed to book publications, including:

  • Nature's Frontiers: Achieving Sustainability, Efficiency, and Prosperity with Natural Capital, published by The World Bank eBooks in 2023
  • Rohingya Refugee Camps and Forest Loss in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh: An Inquiry using Remote Sensing and Econometric Approaches, published by World Bank policy research working paper in 2022

Stephen Polasky has received recognition through awards such as:

  • Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2010)
  • Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2007)

Best Publications

  • Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices

    David Tilman;Kenneth G. Cassman;Pamela A. Matson;Pamela A. Matson;Rosamond L. Naylor

  • Solutions for a cultivated planet

    Jonathan A. Foley;Navin Ramankutty;Kate A. Brauman;Emily S. Cassidy

  • Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt

    Joseph Fargione;Jason Hill;David Tilman;Stephen Polasky

  • Environmental, economic, and energetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels

    Jason D Hill;Erik Nelson;David Tilman;Stephen Polasky

  • Natural climate solutions

    Bronson W. Griscom;Bronson W. Griscom;Justin Adams;Peter W. Ellis;Richard A. Houghton

  • Modeling multiple ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, commodity production, and tradeoffs at landscape scales

    Erik Nelson;Guillermo Mendoza;James Regetz;Stephen Polasky

  • Assessing nature's contributions to people

    Sandra Diaz;Unai Pascual;Marie Stenseke;Berta Martin-Lopez

  • Ecosystem services in decision making: time to deliver

    Gretchen C Daily;Stephen Polasky;Joshua Goldstein;Peter M Kareiva

  • Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change

    Sandra Díaz;Josef Settele;Josef Settele;Eduardo S. Brondízio;Hien T. Ngo

  • Improvements in ecosystem services from investments in natural capital

    Zhiyun Ouyang;Hua Zheng;Yi Xiao;Stephen Polasky

  • Summary for policymakers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

    Sandra Díaz;Josef Settele;Eduardo S. Brondízio;Hien T. Ngo

  • Future threats to biodiversity and pathways to their prevention

    David Tilman;Michael Clark;David R. Williams;Kaitlin Kimmel

  • Coastal Ecosystem-Based Management with Nonlinear Ecological Functions and Values

    Edward B. Barbier;Evamaria W. Koch;Brian R. Silliman;Sally D. Hacker

  • Integrating economic costs into conservation planning.

    Robin Naidoo;Andrew Balmford;Paul J. Ferraro;Stephen Polasky

  • Natural capital and ecosystem services informing decisions: From promise to practice

    Anne D. Guerry;Anne D. Guerry;Stephen Polasky;Jane Lubchenco;Rebecca E Chaplin-Kramer

  • An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean

    Benjamin S. Halpern;Catherine Longo;Darren Hardy;Karen L. McLeod

  • Species Distributions, Land Values, and Efficient Conservation

    Amy W Ando;Jeffrey Camm;Stephen Polasky;Andrew Solow

  • Non‐linearity in ecosystem services: temporal and spatial variability in coastal protection

    Evamaria W. Koch;Edward B. Barbier;Brian R. Silliman;Denise J. Reed

  • Natural Capital: Theory and Practice of Mapping Ecosystem Services

    Peter M. Kareiva;Heather Tallis;Taylor H. Ricketts;Gretchen C. Daily

  • Social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems : modeling and policy implications

    Simon Levin;Tasos Xepapadeas;Anne Sophie Crépin;Jon Norberg

  • Measuring Biological Diversity

    Andrew R. Solow;Stephen Polasky

Frequent Co-Authors

Gretchen C. Daily
Gretchen C. Daily Stanford University
Heather Tallis
Heather Tallis University of California, Santa Cruz
Carl Folke
Carl Folke Stockholm University
David Tilman
David Tilman University of Minnesota
Andrew R. Solow
Andrew R. Solow Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Stephen R. Carpenter
Stephen R. Carpenter University of Wisconsin–Madison
Belinda Reyers
Belinda Reyers University of Pretoria
Taylor H. Ricketts
Taylor H. Ricketts University of Vermont
Mary Ruckelshaus
Mary Ruckelshaus Stanford University
Christopher Costello
Christopher Costello University of California, Santa Barbara

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