Scientists' perspectives on global ocean research priorities

Abstract

Diverse natural and social science research is needed to support policies to recover and sustain healthy oceans. While a wide variety of expert-led prioritization initiatives have identified research themes and priorities at national and regional scale, over the past several years there has also been a surge in the number of scanning exercises that have identified important environmental research questions and issues "from the bottom-up." From those questions, winnowed from thousands of contributions by scientists and policy-makers around the world who participated in terrestrial, aquatic and domain-specific horizon scanning and big question exercises, I identified 657 research questions potentially important for informing decisions regarding ocean governance and sustainability. These were distilled to a short list of 67 distinctive research questions that, in an internet survey, were ranked by 2179 scientists from 94 countries. Five of the top 10 research priorities were shared by respondents globally. Despite significant differences between physical and ecological scientists' priorities regarding specific research questions, they shared seven common priorities among their top 10. Social scientists' priorities were, however, much different, highlighting their research focus on managerial solutions to ocean challenges and questions regarding the role of human behavior and values in attaining ocean sustainability. The results from this survey provide a comprehensive and timely assessment of current ocean research priorities among research-active scientists but highlight potential challenges in stimulating crossdisciplinary research. As ocean and coastal research necessarily becomes more transdisciplinary to address complex ocean challenges, it will be critical for scientists and research funders to understand how scientists from different disciplines and regions might collaborate and strengthen the overall evidence base for ocean governance.

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

“…A collaborative effort from different researchers across a variety of fields and jurisdictions would also be needed (Gjerde and RulskaDomino, 2012;Dunstan et al, 2016;Jay et al, 2016) to ensure sharing of resources and proper representation of ecological processes that occur across and beyond political jurisdictions (Poiani et al, 2000). As highlighted by Rudd (2014), such efforts would benefit from the involvement of social scientists. Suitable guidelines would need to be established to avoid conflicts between natural and social scientists, who may have different priorities and definitions (e.g., in terms of data quality or validity) (see discussion in Rudd, 2014).…”

“…As highlighted by Rudd (2014), such efforts would benefit from the involvement of social scientists. Suitable guidelines would need to be established to avoid conflicts between natural and social scientists, who may have different priorities and definitions (e.g., in terms of data quality or validity) (see discussion in Rudd, 2014). In addition, a committee on ethics would be required within the advisory body.…”

“…It is thus crucial to keep raising awareness of the high variability of maps and models, and to continue proposing solutions to better consider the issues discussed in this paper. By including all who are involved at each step of conservation and management efforts, and by working all together, we can start reducing the gap between the priorities of scientists, society and policy-makers, and ensuring that conservation policy is based on sound scientific evidence (Adams and Sandbrook, 2013;Rudd, 2014;Rose, 2015).…”

The Grand Challenges in Researching Marine Noise Pollution from Vessels: A Horizon Scan for 2017

“…In identifying forth-coming issues (Rudd, 2014;Sutherland et al, 2014) horizon scanning encourages scientists to focus on emerging topics, and policy makers and managers to prepare to address these topics and their implications should they arise. In this way, the outputs from horizon scanning activities also can be used to influence policy.…”

L’évaluation des impacts cumulés dans l’estuaire et le golfe du Saint-Laurent : vers une planification systémique de l’exploitation des ressources

“…Les impacts cumulés ont alors été identifiés comme principale priorité de recherche en sciences marines par plus de 2 000 scientifiques venant des sciences physiques, écologiques et sociales (Rudd, 2014) et sont mentionnés répétitivement parmi les questions de recherche marine prioritaires au Canada (CCA, 2012).…”