Disciplinary diversity in marine sciences: the urgent case for an integration of research

Abstract

Recent events and trends in international relations are making it necessary for scientists to design their projects in ways that can integrate disciplinary perspectives and learn how to communicate their results in governance processes. Some examples of settings in which such skills would be needed are the debates about the political and legal relevance of the “Anthropocene” as a concept, the establishment and implementation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the recent International Court of Justice’s decision on what constitutes “scientific purpose” under the Whaling Convention, and the ongoing international efforts to regulate deep seabed mining activities. These events reveal an acceleration of growing environmental, distributional, and geostrategic conflicts over ocean resources which are changing the character of marine research. For some time now marine sciences have recognized the interdependence of social and ecological systems and the cumulative effects of multiple environmental pressures. In addition, we observe that the relationship between science and policy-making is rapidly changing in a process which we refer to here as the internationalization of knowledge, and that scientific research activities and results are progressively being internationally contested. Altogether these developments constitute extrinsic constraints that render transcending disciplinary boundaries a conditio sine qua non for future marine research. Better comprehension of these trends and their implications may help us to understand marine science’s functioning in the near future, particularly the relationship between disciplines involved.

Tropical marine sciences: Knowledge production in a web of path dependencies

“…Marine Sciences, as an increasingly international system of largely English language based ocean-related knowledge production, irrespective of regional foci, are highly dependent on material infrastructures and technologies [54]. These range from large-scale and highly resource intensive infrastructures such as access to a research fleet (e.g., ships, submersibles), marine research stations, global ocean observatory systems, databases and models, to wellequipped laboratories and of course the transport infrastructures (e.g., air and sea ports) enabling access to the field research regions themselves [55][56][57][58], with increasing contestation over the justification for research activities and funds among disciplines [8]. Access to these material infrastructures substantially determines where and how data collection and analysis is conducted, with whose involvement as well as under which and whose agenda [59][60][61].…”

“…Of the overall 784 marine field stations counted by the report nevertheless, 46% are located in Asia (23%), Africa (8%), South America (10%) and Oceania (5%), as well as 54% in Europe (22%), North America (21%), and Antarctica (11%) [6]. In addition, tropical marine sciences are not bound to specific disciplines, but instead span the disciplinary range from natural to social sciences [7][8][9] with the common research objective of understanding coastal ecosystems, their functioning, use and management in the tropics, acting as a defining and uniting frame.…”

“…Tropical marine sciences are (a) highly technology dependent, expensive sciences with, as a consequence, substantial involvement of financing states in agenda setting processes [6,[10][11][12], (b) international with strong historical/ partly colonial roots [13][14][15][16][17], (c) interdisciplinary [8,9,18], and (d) driven by a visible normative orientation and legitimation towards a sustainable use and management of tropical coastal zones and their resources [19,20]. These particularities suggest that an assessment of the field from a transcultural and postcolonial lens is a useful analytical perspective.…”

Deep‐sea mining: Interdisciplinary research on potential environmental, legal, economic, and societal implications

“…The cooperation among disciplines can be multidisciplinary when individual disciplines work separately on different process steps along the deep‐sea mining value chain. However, closer, interdisciplinary cooperation regarding marine topics is often necessary (Markus et al ). Interdisciplinary research is a style of research that integrates perspectives, methods, concepts, information, and data from at least 2 disciplines to advance the fundamental understanding of problems and develop adequate solutions (NAS ).…”

“…In addition, it reduces of fragmentation and duplication of research (JPI Oceans ). Interdisciplinary cooperation is likely to become even more relevant when cumulative impacts are to be considered because deep‐sea mining will add to existing threats to the marine environment, including temperature increase, acidification, deoxygenation, and fishing (Markus et al ). For understanding the complexities of the whole project, transdisciplinary research as a team in which scientists contribute their unique expertise while working outside their own discipline may in fact be an even better option.…”