In 2009, Hutyra joined the faculty at
Boston University as an assistant professor. She was promoted to associate professor in 2015 and professor in 2021. That year she was also appointed Director of the Biogeosciences Programme. Hutyra's research considers anthropogenic carbon dioxide and how urbanization impacts ecosystem characteristics. Her early work looked to quantify how the ecosystem productivity and dynamics change across urban and rural domains, map historical to contemporary patterns of landcover and develop strategies to scale her investigations and understanding. She became interested in how local and regional ecology contribute to carbon fluxes, and has demonstrated that they absorb and emit carbon in different ways depending on their surrounding soils. She has investigated how human-made boundaries and naturally occurring boundaries affect tree growth and carbon uptake. In 2017, Hutrya joined the NASA Federal Advisory Committee on Earth Sciences, where she focused on carbon cycles. She is actively fighting to combat climate by reducing carbon emissions, starting in Boston where she currently works. Hutyra's research has been instrumental in understanding how urban forests contribute to carbon sequestration, particularly in densely populated cities like Boston, where she has conducted extensive studies on tree growth and atmospheric carbon absorption. == Awards and honors ==