Sean Wineland Science to Action Fellow

The Science to Action Fellowship program supports graduate students in developing a product that puts science into action, directly applying scientific research related to climate change impacts on fish, wildlife, or ecosystems to decision making about natural resources. Intensifying conflicts between societal water needs and environmental flows in drought-prone river basins highlights a need for decision-support tools to aid decision makers in choosing where and when to invest scarce resources. However, uncertainty across future climate scenarios complicates decision making processes. Sean aims to help guide decision makers through this process by identifying locations in the Red River in the southern Great Plains where environmental flows can be boosted to benefit fish populations while not impeding societal water resources. Sean’s project will gauge the perspectives of water resource and fisheries managers on the impacts of climate change on water resource and fisheries management and produce a decision-support tool that aids water resource and fisheries managers in prioritizing the best locations and times to boost environmental flows or perform fisheries management actions. Sean will be in the Reston office for two months during the summer of 2019.