SEES Fellows: Engineering a carrying capacity framework for sustainable management of natural resources

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In this Award from the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows Program) Dr. Carrie Byron from the University of New England will engineer new tools for sustainable management of resources and will examine synergies between coupled human-natural systems using a carrying capacity approach. This award is supported by the Directorate for Geosciences and the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences.The proposed work will (1) investigate the ways in which ecological- and social-carrying capacities can be quantified ; (2) investigate the feedbacks between ecological and economic systems; (3) study the mechanisms regulating ecological- and social-carrying capacity; and (4) explore if a carrying capacity concept can be used to promote sustainable management of natural resources in coastal ecosystems. Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and Cobscook Bay, Maine will be used as sites in the study.The aim of studies like that proposed in this work is to develop better methods for the management of natural resources.Dr. Byron will be working with collaborators Prof. James Sulikowski of the Marine Science Center at the University of New England and Dr. Di Jin at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Instittuion; as well as Prof. Tracey Dalton in the Department of Marine Affairs, at the University of Rhode Island and Prof. Gayle Zydlewski in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine. Dr. Byron will work with research students with her University collaborators and will disseminate the results of her work through scientific and public outreach. This project is supported under the NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability Fellows (SEES Fellows) program, with the goal of helping to enable discoveries needed to inform actions that lead to environmental, energy and societal sustainability while creating the necessary workforce to address these challenges. With SEES Fellows support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to sustainability.