FROM SCIENCE TO POLICY THROUGH TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH S19. With and for Cliff VICENÇ ACUÑAVICENÇ ACUÑA

PROBLEM STATEMENT The complexity of our World

PROBLEM STATEMENT The complexity of our World What should I do with the island?

PROBLEM STATEMENT Disciplinary research wikipedia

PROBLEM STATEMENT Disciplinary research o Research within one academic discipline, which sets the goals. o Develop new theory and knowledge in a single discipline, which may overlap with knowledge generated elsewhere. o Little cooperation with other disciplines and barriers often erected. o Barriers: disciplinary territoriality, communication strategies, characteristics of leadership, group dynamics, characteristics of organizational support, and differing disciplinary criteria for success.

Multidisciplinarity o Several disciplines required to answer a question. o Loose cooperation between disciplines for knowledge exchange (often towards the end of the project). o Develops new knowledge and theory in individual disciplines. Example: a LU change modeler develops forecasts and hands those off to the hydrologist to run the hydrologic model to see effects on our island. INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Steps beyond disciplinary research

Interdisciplinarity o People from different disciplines work towards a common shared goal, integrating disciplinary approaches and knowledge. o Development of new integrated knowledge and theory. Example: if LU change cannot be forecast based on past LU, but instead we need a dynamic a fully coupled model developed together between the governance/psychology scholar and the geographer. INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Steps beyond disciplinary research

Transdisciplinarity o The collaboration goes beyond all disciplines to a new emerging discipline or a high level of methodological or conceptual synthesis. o The concept is also often used to describe research in which the potential knowledge user (so called stakeholder) is involved (i.e. they help shape the question and how it is addressed). Example: as before, but with Obama sitting in the same table as all researchers. INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Steps beyond disciplinary research

INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Current status Clear increasing trend of citations to other disciplines, in both the natural and social sciences. Van Noorden 2015, Nature

INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Current status Interdisciplinary as a function of time and discipline Based on Van Noorden 2015, Nature

INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Take home message Facing global change, if we are to properly address the current and upcoming challenges in the management of socio-environmental systems, we need to move forward from disciplinary research into something closer to transdisciplinarity.

INTER/TRANS-DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH Cliff’s take home message Facing the likely Gila diversion plan in 2005, and the creation of the Inter- state stream commission to handle it, Cliff told me that we needed to move outside our comfort zone if we were to support policy making in the Gila. Albuquerque, New Mexico

CLIFF’s WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Scientific career wordcounts.com

CLIFF’s WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Scientific career Stream/s Water Headwater wordcounts.com

CLIFF’s WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Scientific career Stream/s Water Headwater New Mexico Semi-arid Mount St Helens Río Grande wordcounts.com

CLIFF’s WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Scientific career Stream/s Water Headwater New Mexico Semi-arid Mount St Helens Río Grande Hyporheic zone Riparian wordcounts.com

CLIFF’s WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Scientific career Stream/s Water Headwater New Mexico Semi-arid Mount St Helens Río Grande Hyporheic zone Riparian Restoration Nutrient retention Metabolism Organic carbon wordcounts.com

CLIFF’S WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Professional background o Cliff is an ecosystem ecologist with expertise in restoration ecology, nutrients and carbon biogeochemistry, and microbial ecology; and emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches required to understand aquatic ecosystems.

CLIFF’S WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Professional background o Cliff is an ecosystem ecologist with expertise in restoration ecology, biogeochemistry, microbial ecology, hydrology, climatology and aquatic ecology, and emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches required for understanding aquatic ecosystems. o He has served as Director of the Freshwater Sciences Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program (IGERT) at UNM, Program Director for the Division of Environmental Biology of the NSF, President of the North American Benthological Society (NABS- SFS), and as interim director of the Sevilleta LTER program.

CLIFF’S WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Final (current at least) destination o 35 years after the first publication, Cliff has been unanimously appointed by the Delta Stewardship Council as Lead Scientist of the Delta Science Program.

CLIFF’S WAY TO TRANSDISCIPLINARITY Final (current at least) destination Let’s hope that some of his former students/ postdocs/ collaborators/ colleagues or just friends get somewhere closer to where he got, in between disciplines, and engaging with real world problems hand by hand with policy-makers. o 35 years after the first publication, Cliff has been unanimously appointed by the Delta Stewardship Council as Lead Scientist of the Delta Science Program.

Is there anything out there? Come here and judge yourself Cliff, thanks for your wisdom! Acknowledgements: Jenn F Shah for the invitation, and M Palmer for feedback on transdisciplinary research