Difference between revisions of "Motivating Science Scenario"

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MOTIVATING THE SCIENCE SCENARIO

updated version: Paul Hanson and Hilary Dugan

The recognition that the future health of the world depends on provisioning of ecosystem services provided by fresh waters, including quantity and quality available for consumption, agriculture and aquaculture, industry, recreation, and carbon sequestration, has motivated an array of research and advocacy initiatives [MEA 2005; ILEC 2007; Levin and Clark 2009]. The resulting knowledge is represented in multiple disciplines, including hydrology [NRC: 2011, 2012], ecology [Foley et al. 2011], economics and security [Suweis et al. 2013]. Indeed, these grand challenges are integral to the research agendas of programs dedicated to water, including the Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs), Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) and their affiliated networks, such as the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) and Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites. Despite great advances, we still are challenged to quantify water and material fluxes that underpin aquatic ecosystems, and in some cases even understand the dominant mechanisms controlling them. By their very nature, these problems are cross-disciplinary with high demands for data and advanced analytical approaches that capture essential features of different ecosystems and integrate them in a common framework.

The domain research focuses on theoretical and experimental aspects of the isotopic “age” of water in watershed-lake systems. In this context, “age” is defined as the time since the water parcel and environmental tracer entered the system as precipitation. Both the hydrology and limnology communities have developed an observing system for isotope ratios of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen but with very different science questions. This research tests a framework using models and data for defining a unified “isoscape” for the watershed-lake system, forming a richer and more collaborative shared research strategy. Our hypothesis is that the lake-catchment isoscape provides the experimental basis for predicting flow paths, residence times and the relative age of water in space and time, and that understanding these spatiotemporal patterns provides a deeper understanding of fundamental biogeochemical processes including carbon and nitrogen cycling within the lake catchment system.

The aims of the domain research cut across disciplines and cross institutional and geographic boundaries. An initial goal is a retrospective analysis based on a fully-coupled catchment-lake-groundwater hydrodynamic model parameterized from national data, calibrated with local data, and implemented to run climate and landuse change scenarios. The target catchments for the initial catchment-lake isoscapes are Trout Lake (Wisconsin) and Shaver Creek (Pennsylvania). As water age and the associated flowpaths are identified, scientists will use that information to infer the sources of organic carbon to lake-catchment ecosystems, their fluxes from the landscape to lakes, the fates as storage, conversion or export, and understanding of the uncertainties surrounding these quantities. Thus, an outcome of this work will be the first-ever dynamical model for lake water, energy and carbon cycling constrained by a fully coupled catchment mass balance including the effects of the groundwater basin. Achieving these aims requires a community-level agreement and implementation of the data and model standards necessary for inter-operability between hydrologic and ecological sciences, as well as a framework for integrating catchment-lake stable isotope analysis within the “isoscapes” paradigm for continental and global applications.

The science-driven demands of the research project have motivated the assembly of community-level resources distributed amongst institutions. The complex suite of resources, including data sets, computer models, computing resources, or technological staff must be coordinated and directed toward a common goal. This is both a technical and a social problem that presents challenges for the traditional model of scientific collaboration. What is needed is a harmonization of the resources and the process for carrying out science projects, and for fostering the development and growth of related projects. It must be efficient in terms of time and cost, and approachable to newcomers.

The organic data science platform is a structured environment that can handle this complexity. By documenting the scientific progress, unresolved tasks that must be undertaken are made clear, both as a reminder to the principal investigators, but also to new members who want to contribute. The wiki provides a legacy of documentation, and a trail of how results were obtained. In an academic environment where many student and postdoctoral positions last 1-4 years, this documentation will be a means of introducing new participants to the project without one-on-one training. It provides acknowledgement for the diverse contributions of the community, thus fostering trust in the broader collaboration and encouragement for diversification of the science and technology. Ultimately, it is envisioned to lead to better scientific products representative of diverse contributions from both the hydrology and limnology communities.

REFERENCES:

Foley J a., Ramankutty N, Brauman K a., Cassidy ES, Gerber JS, Johnston M, et al. Solutions for a cultivated planet. Nature [Internet]. 2011 Oct 12 [cited 2011 Oct 12];478(7369):337–42. Available from: http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature10452

ILEC. 2007. Integrated Lake Basin Management: An Introduction. International Lake Environment Committee Foundation: Kusatsu, Japan

Levin, S, and W Clark. 2009. Toward a Science of Sustainability, Report from Toward a Science of Sustainability Conference, Airlie Center ~ Warrenton, Virginia, November 29, 2009 – December 2, 2009

Millenium Ecosystem Assessment. 2005. Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis. Island Press, Washington, DC

NRC. 2011. Global Change and Extreme Hydrology: Testing Conventional Wisdom. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

NRC; National Research Council, 2012, Challenges and Opportunities in the Hydrologic Sciences, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 161 pp.

Suweis S, Rinaldo A, Maritan A, D’Odorico P. Water-controlled wealth of nations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America [Internet]. 2013 Mar 12 [cited 2013 May 28];110(11):4230–3. Available from: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3600477&tool=pmcentrez&rendertype=abstract

MOTIVATING THE SCIENCE SCENARIO

original by: Chris Duffy

Our INSPIRE effort is focused on how to do collaborative research via on-line software tools that can facilitate the sharing of complex data, models, ideas and research papers in earth and environmental science. Our motivating science goal is predicting the “age of water and carbon in lake-catchment systems. Lakes, reservoirs and wetlands are pervasive features of all catchments including those in the CZO domain, and our attention has focused on lake-catchment issues. Of necessity, our multi-disciplinary research collaborators from around the globe require a new way of carrying out their research, sharing their data, contributing to new theories and publishing their work. The capacity for: 1) starting communities around science questions, 2) dealing with new ideas, data and models, 3) organizing members around tasks, 4) encouraging contributions, 5) fostering commitment, and 6) supporting training, are some of the elements required. These principles are guiding the design of our organic data science framework and in the evolution of model and data services in support of hypothesis-driven research.

From the Earth and environemntal science perspective the research focuses on theoretical and experimental aspects of the isotopic “age” of water in lake-catchment systems. In this context, “age” is defined as the time since the water parcel and environmental tracer entered the system as precipitation. We note that each of our communities have developed an observing system for isotope ratios of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen but with very different science questions. In this research we are building a framework using models and data for defining a unified “isoscape” for the watershed-lake system, forming a richer and more collaborative shared research strategy. Our hypothesis is that the lake-catchment isoscape provides the experimental basis for predicting flow paths, residence times and the relative age of water in space and time, and that understanding these spatiotemporal patterns will provide a deeper understanding of fundamental biogeochemical processes including carbon and nitrogen cycling within the lake-catchment system. Details of the theory for lake-catchment systems can be found in Duffy (2010) and at the Organic Data Science website (http://www.organicdatascience.org/index.php/Age_of_Water:_Example).