Loren M. Smith is an ecosystem ecologist specializing in wetland and grassland systems. Currently he is focusing on the study of sustainable provisioning of ecosystem services in wetlands. Ecosystem services are those tangibles that are of benefit to human society such as provisioning of clean water, floodwater storage, wildlife habitat, climate change amelioration, pollinator benefits, and groundwater recharge, among others. Smith is particularly well known for his study of playa wetlands, a shallow wetland type common throughout the world but most numerous in the U.S. Great Plains.