Gwendŵr Meredith

Gwendŵr Meredith

  • Contact Information
  • My Story
  • Publications
  • Background
  • Interests
  • Advising
  • Courses Taught

Contact Information

TitleSocial-Ecological Rangeland Scientist
Faculty RankAssistant Professor
Address312 South Hardin Hall
3310 Holdrege Street
Lincoln NE
68583–0973

East Campus
Phone
  • office: 531-333-3180
E-mailgmeredith@unl.edu
VitaeDownload file

 

Contact Preference

Email and open door

Office Hours

I’ll be adding this info to future syllabi and will update once I know what my office hours are.

My Story

I am a Social-Ecological Rangeland Scientist and assistant professor within the Center for Resilience in Agricultural Working Landscapes (CRAWL), working jointly with the School of Natural Resources and Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. Broadly, I study cross-boundary collaboration across connected landscapes, stakeholder perceptions of land use or land cover change, and the adoption and diffusion of management innovations.

Feature Story: Meredith striving to depolarize STEM research for impact (10/10/2023)

Gwendwr Meredith

My Background

I grew up in Texas playing in the dirt with antlions, roly-polies (pill bugs), and the occasional garden spider. My path to Nebraska has been a little circuitous. Five-year-old me couldn’t pronounce 'Social-Ecological Rangeland Scientist' but aspired to other careers like archaeologist or zookeeper (I love zoos). Later, as an undergrad I was introduced to the field of animal behavior and pursued an individualized major in Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation from Indiana University. Through this degree I realized that natural resource management is not only about understanding biophysical processes (that's important too!), but it’s also about human behavior and the complicated social interactions that need to occur for management to happen at the landscape-scale. That realization led me to pursue a PhD in Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Science and Management from Utah State University and a human dimensions postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Idaho working with the Agricultural Research Service's LTAR Network before landing at UNL.

What I study

My research focuses on information diffusion and collaboration among land managers in rangelands. I study rangelands, and grazing lands more broadly, because they cover a huge portion of the United States and provide a wealth of provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Rangelands are also interesting study areas from a social perspective because provisioning ecosystem services (e.g. cattle production) are often perceived as mutually exclusive from the other types of ecosystem services rangelands provide and this can create a polarizing management environment. My interests are broad, but my research aim is to bring together multi-stakeholder perspectives that manage grazing lands for all types of ecosystem services, thereby increasing trust amongst stakeholders while promoting the resilience of our grazing lands.

In my spare time, I enjoy gardening, knitting, and taking my dogs on a hike through some of the prairies around Lincoln.

Gwendwrs Dog

Feature Stories

Selected Publications

Chen, L., Achugbu, I. C., Mahmood, R., Kintziger, K., Bell, J. Meredith, G. 2025. Heat stress induced by irrigation over the US Great Plains and related uncertainties. Environmental Research Letters 20 054072. Online
Legatzke, H., Chaffin, B. C., Floyd, T. M., Banerjee, S., Church, S., Gulab, S., Hamlin, S., Meredith, G. R., Metcalf, A. L., Nesbitt, H. K., *Sutherland-Rowen, E., Uden, D. R. & Allen, C. R. (2025). Governance of a landscape: The role of formal and informal organizations. Journal of Environmental Management, 380, 124974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124974
Pape, T., Meredith, G.R., *Sandahl, D., Kabir, F., Banerjee, S. (2025). Actor-network analysis of partners facilitating regenerative ranching practices in the U.S. Northern Great Plains. Rangelands, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rala.2025.01.003
Scholtz, R., D.R.Uden, et.al. 2025.Reconciling scale using the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) Framework to improve management of woody encroachment in grasslands, Jour. Envir. Man.387:125820Online
Windh, J., Meredith, G., Miller, F., Lee, K., Ritten, J., Thayer, A.W., Torell, G., Spiegal, S., & Wulfhorst, J. (2025). Identifying a path forward: Evaluating ranch socio-economic sustainability and impacts on ranch succession planning. Western Economics Forum special issue, 23(1), 18-27. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.364766
Meredith, G. R., Spiegal, S., Kleinman, P. J. A., & Harmel, D. (2022). The social networks of manureshed management. Journal of Environmental Quality, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20334Online
Meredith, G., Brunson, M. W. (2022). Effects of wildfire on collaborative governance of rangelands - a case study of the 2015 Soda Fire. Rangelands.Online
Spiegal, S., Webb, N. P., Boughton, E. H., Boughton, R. K., Bentley Brymer, A., Clark, P. E., Holifield Collins, C. D., Hoover, D. L., Kaplan, N., McCord, S. E., Meredith, G., Porensky, L., Toledo, D., Wilmer, H., Wulfhorst, J., Bestelmeyer, B. T. (2022). Measuring the social and ecological performance of agricultural innovations on rangelands: progress and plans for an indicator framework in the LTAR network. Rangelands. Online
Brunson, M.W., Huntsinger, L., Meredith, G.R., Sayre, N. (2021). The future of social science integration in rangelands research, RangelandsOnline
Meredith, G. R., & Brunson, M. W. (2021). Effects of Wildfire on Collaborative Management of Rangelands: A Case Study of the 2015 Soda Fire. Rangelands.Online
Meredith, G., Bean, A., Brymer, A. B., Friedrichsen, C., & Hurst, Z. (2021). Integrating human dimensions within the LTAR Network to achieve agroecological system transformation. RangelandsOnline
Meredith, G.R., Brunson, M.W., Hardegree, S.P. (2021). Management innovations for resilient public rangelands: Adoption constraints and considerations. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 75, pp. 152-160.Online
Sayles, J., Garcia, M. M., Hamilton, M., Alexander, S., Baggio, J., Fischer, A. P., Ingold, K., Meredith, G.R. & Pittman, J. (2019). Social-ecological network analysis for sustainability sciences: a systematic review and innovative research agenda for the future. Environmental Research Letters, 14(9), 093003.Online
Hardegree, S. P., Abatzoglou, J. T., Brunson, M. W., Germino, M. J., Hegewisch, K. C., Moffet, C. A., . . . Meredith, G. R. (2018). Weather-Centric Rangeland Revegetation Planning. Rangeland Ecology & Management, 71(1), pp. 1-11. Online

Background

Education

DegreeMajorInstitutionYear Awarded
Doctorate of PhilosophyHuman Dimensions of Ecosystem Science and ManagementUtah State University2019
Bachelor of ArtsAnimal Behavior, Ecology and ConservationIndiana University2013

 

Affiliations

 

Awards

TitleAwarded byYear Awarded
Summer GrantRedd Center for Western Studies2018
Doctoral Research FellowshipS.J. and Jessie E. Quinney Foundation2014

 

Professional Organizations

NamePosition
American Society of Agronomy
International Association for Society and Natural Resources
Society for Range Management

 

Websites

 

SNR Program Areas

  • Applied Ecology

Areas of Interest/Expertise

  • Social-ecological Systems
  • Human Dimensions of Natural Resources
  • Collaborative Natural Resource Management
  • Landscape-scale Restoration Planning
  • Ecosystem Resilience
  • Translational Ecology
  • Political Ecology
  • Network Analysis

Advising

Graduate Programs

Master of Applied Science

Master of Science in Natural Resource Sciences
including specializations in

  • Adaptive Management
  • Applied Ecology
  • Human Dimensions

Doctorate of Philosophy in Natural Resource Sciences
including specializations in

  • Adaptive Management
  • Applied Ecology
  • Human Dimensions

Courses Taught

Course NumberCourse TitleFall Even YearsFall Odd YearsSpring Even YearsSpring Odd YearsSummer SessionCross Listing
NRES 245Introduction to Grassland Ecology and ManagementXXAGRO 245