
Tyndall Lab
We study People, Land Use and Society (PLUS). The PLUS lab is directed by Dr. John Tyndall, a natural resource economist and social scientist with broad interests in environmental and natural resource economics, policy and sociology within forestry, agriculture, and urban contexts.
News
Congrats to (almost) DR. Richard Magala! He succesfully defended his dissertation this spring. His dissertation is titled "Quantifying ecosystem service trade-offs to advance sustainable intensification of US Corn Belt agriculture".
The PLUS Lab welcomes three new students! Kelsey Karnish, Derrick Kapayou, and Paul Keyser.
Publications
*Student authors
2025
Stephenson, M.D., Seibert, C.J.*, Zhang, G., Tyndall, J.C., O’Neal, M.E., and L.A. Schulte. (2025). Support for Agricultural Prairie Strips as Monarch Butterfly Habitat. Ecological Restoration.
2024
Summers, H.N., Stone, T.F., Dickey, L.C.*, Rehmann, C.R., Zimmerman, E.K., Tyndall, J.C., Liu, L. (2024). Mapping Barriers to Food, Energy, and Water Systems Equity in the United States. Environmental Science and Policy.
Bravard, E.*, Zimmerman, E., Tyndall, J.C., James, D. (2024). Welcome to the new frontier: Introducing Extension to the next generation of conservation planning tools. Journal of Extension.
Nelson, J.*, Liebman, M., Niemi, J., Cruse, R., Tyndall, J.C., Witte, C., James, D. (2024). The influence of prairie strips sown in midwestern corn and soybean fields on sediment discharge throughout the year. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.
Olafasakin, O.*, Audia, E.*, Mba-Wright, M., Tyndall, J.C., Schulte, L.A. (2024) Techno-economic and life-cycle analysis of renewable natural gas derived from anaerobic digestion of grassy biomass: a U.S. Corn Belt watershed case study. Global Change Biology Bioenergy.
Lewis, M.*, Tyndall, J.C., Dodd, B., Weber, M. (2024). Economic evaluation of barriers to minimize reservoir sportfish escapement. North American Journal of Fisheries Management.
Dinsmore, S., Delaney, D., Tyndall, J.C. (2024) Density, Population Trends, and Economic Impacts of White-tailed Deer in Iowa. A report in response to Iowa Senate File 581, submitted to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University. 60p.
2023
Magala, R.*; Miguez, F.; Tyndall, J.C., Schulte Moore, L.A. (2023) Modeling Carbon Dynamics in Corn Cropping Systems: Evaluation and Application Based on the Longest-Running Cropping System Experiment in North America. SSRN Elsevier.
Stone, T.*, Dickey, L.C.*, Summers, H.*, Thompson, J.R., Rehmann, C.R., Zimmerman, E., and JC Tyndall. (2023) A systematic review of social equity in FEWS analyses. Frontiers in Environmental Science.
Summers, Haleigh. 2023. Dissertation title: Identifying environmental, economic, and equity opportunities through a spatial lens. PhD. Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Science. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Bogert, Melanie. 2023. Thesis title: Plant and Insect Community Responses to Manure Application in Prairies. MS. Graduate Program in Sustainable and Entomology. Iowa State University, Ames, IA.
Kaardal, Morgan. 2023. Thesis Title: The other side of prairie strips: an exploration of the value of prairie strips to the beekeeping and hunting industries in Iowa. MS. Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture and Entomology. Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Online Conservation Planning Tools

ACPF FiNRT ("fine art")

Economic evaluation of barriers to sportfish escapement
The application is set to default values which represent the costs to construct a barrier on Brushy Creek Lake in Iowa in 2020. On the sidebar, you can select and drag values to evaluate how changes in spillway size, or various construction costs metrics will change the cost distribution over time.