Dr. Sarah Null

Aquatic Habitat, Climate, and Water Analysis (ACWA) Lab

Research Program

My research addresses the potential to protect aquatic ecosystems while maintaining water resource benefits for people in water scarce regions.  Ongoing research includes improving aquatic habitat objectives in water resources systems models, evaluating tradeoffs between human and environmental water uses with uncertainty, identifying climate adaptations for water systems, and environmental water management for saline lakes.  Systems modeling, mathematical modeling, and field studies are methods I use to improve understanding of systems and explore promising solutions to problems.  My research informs river restoration and water resources decision-making to enhance water sustainability in an uncertain future.

In The News   

Climate Change is Drying Out Many Part-time Streams in the United States

Science, 8/12/2021

Meet Sarah Null, newest PPIC CalTrout Ecosystem Fellow

CalTrout News, 7/30/2021

Sarah Null is the 2021-2022 CalTrout Ecosystem Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California

What It Means to Store Water for the Environment

Public Policy Institute of California Water Center Blog, 7/26/2021

Outdated Dams: When Removal Becomes an Option

Western Water Magazine, Summer 2016

Dead Seas: Great Salt Lake Faces Ruin

Greenwire, 7/11/2016

Striking a Balance on the Great Salt Lake

Union Pacific Press Release, 6/14/2016

Debate Over Yosemite’s ‘Twin Valley’ Restoration

The Guardian, 3/6/2012

Restoring Yosemite’s Twin

Science News Focus, 10/27/2006

The O’Shaughnessy Dam Debate

PBS NewsHour, 8/12/2005

Tom Philp’s Sacramento Bee Hetch Hetchy Pulitzer Prize

UC Davis Dateline, 4/8/2005

Bringing Down a Dam

Sacramento News and Review, 1/20/2005

Hetch Hetchy Reclaimed: The Dam Downstream*

Sacramento Bee, 8/29/2004  

Part of a series of editorials which won an Editorial Writing Pulitzer Prize