Interdisciplinary research in climate and energy sciences

Abstract

Due to the complex nature of climate change, interdisciplinary research approaches involving knowledge and skills from a broad range of disciplines have been adopted for studying changes in the climate system as well as strategies for mitigating climate change (i.e., greenhouse gas emissions reductions) and adapting to its impacts on society and natural systems. Harnessing of renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels is widely regarded as a long-term mitigation strategy that requires the synthesis of knowledge from engineering, technology, and natural and social sciences. In this study, we examine how the adoption of interdisciplinary approaches has evolved over time and in different geographic regions. We conducted a comprehensive literature survey using an evaluation matrix of keywords, in combination with a word cloud analysis, to evaluate the spatiotemporal dynamics of scholarly discourse about interdisciplinary approaches to climate change and renewable energy research and development (R&D). Publications that discuss interdisciplinary approaches to climate change and renewable energy have substantially increased over the last 60 years; it appears, however, that the nature, timing, and focus of these publications vary across countries and through time. Over the most recent three decades, the country-level contribution to interdisciplinary research for climate change has become more evenly distributed, but this was not true for renewable energy research, which remained dominated by the United Sates and a few other major economies. The research topics have also evolved: Water resource management was emphasized from 1990s to 2000s, policy and adaptation were emphasized from the 2000s to 2010-2013, while vulnerability became prominent during the most recent years (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013). Our analysis indicates that the rate of growth of interdisciplinary research for renewable energy lags behind that for climate change, possibly because knowledge emanating from climate change science has motivated the subsequent upswing in renewable energy R&D.

Climate change and aquaculture: considering adaptation potential

“…This logical progression towards data sharing and the exponentially increasing number of climate change studies (Haunschild et al 2016, Pedersen et al 2016, Xu et al 2016) suggest a need for the standardization of some research methodologies. Such standardization may require accepted data collection methodologies, best practices for experimental designs, standardized apparatus and perturbations, biological reference organisms for in situ studies, standardized reporting, consideration of natural fluctuations, and more realistic simulation of regional environmental conditions to facilitate research progress and data interpretation (Riebesell et al 2010, Boyd 2013, Riebesell & Gattuso 2015, Cornwall & Hurd 2016, Ellis et al 2017.…”

Towards more predictive and interdisciplinary climate change ecosystem experiments

“…The very nature of climate change and its impacts is discipline-spanning and therefore requires an integrated approach 25 . Althought the number of interdisciplinary studies related to climate change is increasing steadily 26 , there are still many challenges related to interdisciplinary research. These include establishing common terminology, concepts and metrics 25,27,28 , a consistently lower funding success for interdisciplinary research projects 29 , and a general lack of interdisciplinary research positions 25 .…”

Climate change and aquaculture: considering biological response and resources

“…At the global level, the volume of aquaculture-relevant climate research becoming available is encouraging, but also daunting. Research into the multiple dimensions of climate change is increasing exponentially (Haunschild et al 2016, Pedersen et al 2016, Xu et al 2016, and literature specific to climate change impacts on aquaculture is still comparatively limited, but is also increasing exponentially (Dabbadie et al 2018). The rapid publication rate of climate change research makes keeping abreast of aquaculture-relevant literature increasingly difficult, even for experts.…”