Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
teams and collaborations with scientists from developing countries; programs are being
developed to increase retention and success of women and minorities in science; and sev-
eral translation tools are becoming important in broadening the impact of research find-
ings and accommodate cultural and language barriers. Because who does science affects
the kind of science that is done, it is likely that broadening the population of ecosystem
scientists will change the shape of our science (Uriarte et al. 2007).
Ecosystem science is also being changed by advances in communication and social
networking. In 2011, more than 2.2 billion people, nearly one-third of Earth's population,
used the Internet. Communication technology has created networks of networks that pro-
vide high-speed access to creative and unlimited applications that can be accessed by
handheld mobile devices, tablets, and computers at almost any place and time. They also
provide important avenues of communication for people. Thanks to the vastly increasing
ability to obtain information resources and services using the Internet, and the move
toward more web-based social networks and tools, ecosystem scientists will find
it increasingly easy to communicate with other scientists around the world (
Figure 17.4
).
These changes are likely to change attitudes about sharing data (from viewing most data
as the exclusive property of an individual scientist to viewing at least some data as shared,
in fact as community property), expand the range of questions that can be answered, and
accelerate the pace of scientific progress.
CONCLUSION
Even though it may not be possible to lay out the exact shape of the ecosystem science of
the future, it should be clear even from this brief overview that ecosystem science is evolving
rapidly, in terms of the kinds of questions that are asked, the kinds of questions that can be
answered, the research approaches and technological tools that are used, the kinds of people
who do ecosystem science and with whom ecosystem scientists collaborate, the applications
of ecosystem science to environmental management and policy, and nearly every other aspect
of the science. The challenge to address important environmental problems has never been
greater, but neither has been our capacity to respond to these challenges.
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