J. Adam Riggsbee, PhD.

Adam became interested in ecological restoration in the late 1990s while studying biology at Western Carolina University (WCU) in the mountains of North Carolina. Encouraged by the emergence of the nation’s green economy and his passion for all things water, Adam embarked on a career in aquatic ecosystem restoration. A few years after his graduation from WCU, Adam began graduate school at UNC to study pertinent issues in dam removal and water quality. His graduate research was based on two North Carolina dam removals performed for compensatory mitigation. Adam’s research earned him a doctorate from the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering in 2006.

Shortly after graduating from UNC, Adam began working for a mitigation banking firm in Raleigh, NC where he led the company’s dam removal and water quality trading operations.  While working in mitigation banking in NC, Adam secured the approval of the state’s first ecosystem restoration based water quality trading bank. He also participated in various dam removal, wetland and stream restoration projects. 

Prior to his career in ecological restoration, Adam worked as an Environmental Microbiologist, a Botanical Gardner and a Field Biologist. Adam is actively participating in various research efforts focused on the development and improvement of ecological restoration methods and policy. In addition, he serves on the Board of Visitors for University of North Carolina’s Institute for the Environment.

 

Refereed Publications

BenDor T., Riggsbee J.A. and Doyle M.W.  In Press. Risk and markets for ecosystem services. Environmental Science and Technology.

Riggsbee J.A., Wetzel R.G. and Doyle, M.W. In Press. Physical and plant community controls on nitrogen and phosphorus leaching from impounded riverine wetlands following dam removal.  Rivers Research and Applications.

Bendor T. and Riggsbee J.A. 2011. A survey of entrepreneurial risk in US wetland and stream compensatory mitigation markets. Environmental Science and Policy 14: 301-314.

Bendor T. and Riggsbee J.A. 2011. Regulatory and ecological risk under federal requirements for compensatory wetland and stream mitigation. Environmental Science and Policy 14: 639-649.

Bendor T, Riggsbee J.A., and Howard G. 2010. A survey of mitigation banker perceptions and experiences. National Wetland Newsletter 32: 11-15.

Riggsbee J.A. and Doyle M.W. 2009. Environmental markets: the power of regulation. Science 326: 1061.

Riggsbee J.A., Orr C.H., Leech D.M., Doyle M.W. and Wetzel R.G.  2008. Suspended sediments in river ecosystems: photochemical sources of dissolved organic carbon and adsorptive removal of dissolved iron.  Journal of Geophysical Research—Biogeosciences.

Julian, J.P., Doyle, M.W., Powers, S.M., Stanley, E.H., and Riggsbee, J.A. 2008. Optical water quality in rivers. Water Resources Research, doi:10.29/2007WR006457.

Doyle M.W., Stanley E.H., Havlick D., Kaiser M.J., Steinbach G., Graf W., Galloway G. and Riggsbee, J.A. 2008.  Aging infrastructure and ecosystem restoration. Science 319: 286-287.

Riggsbee J.A., Julian J.P., Doyle M.W., and Wetzel R.G.  2007.  Sediment, dissolved organic carbon, and nitrogen export during the dam removal process.  Water Resources Research, 43, WO9414, doi: 10.1029/2006WR005318.