Some Thoughts on Keeping Field Stations and Marine Labs Afloat in Turbulent Times
Some Thoughts on Keeping Field Stations and Marine Labs Afloat in Turbulent Times
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关于在动荡时期保持现场站和海洋实验室运转的一些想法
DOI：
10.1093/biosci/biv034
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
10.1
通讯作者：
J. Schubel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
J. Schubel
长期以来，野外观测站和海洋实验室一直是美国和世界研究基础设施的重要组成部分，许多人认为，它们的重要性在未来会增加。许多人在经济上挣扎。一些学校已经关闭，其他学校也面临关闭的威胁。去年，应国家科学基金会的要求，国家研究理事会完成了一项研究，对野外台站和海洋实验室进行评估，并提出建议，以确保它们在21世纪生存和发展。我主持了委员会，该委员会编写了题为《提高世纪野外台站和海洋实验室的价值和可持续性》（NRC 2014）的报告。报告的编写是12名具有丰富实地台站经验的科学家的共同努力。该报告（NRC 2014）于2014年9月发布。在报告中，我们指出，75%的位于美国的野外工作站（这里使用的术语，如报告中所述，包括海洋实验室）隶属于大学。虽然成为大学的一部分通常很重要，但这并不能保证财政可行性。许多大学都面临着自己的财务挑战。独立实验室与大学的合并带来了众所周知的挑战，即整合两种截然不同的文化。与大型大学相比，大多数外地工作站的正式组织结构和官僚机构较少。一些多年来与大学有联系的野外工作站通过身体和智力上的逃离校园来应对文化冲突。这种分离可能会付出代价，特别是当校园正在挣扎：外地站是看不见的，所以他们的想法。外地工作站主任需要与其上级机构保持密切联系，特别是与确定机构优先事项和负责资金分配和基础设施优先事项的校园领导人保持密切联系。在为该报告撰写的一份声明中，E。O.威尔逊观察到，“在不久的将来，从生物化学到生态学的生物学研究的更大份额将在生物野外站进行，这些站由自然保护区组成，并随时可以进入配备有分析和监测生物组织各个层次（包括分子）过程的实验室。他接着说，“外地站也将成为各级教育的关键中心。”随着环境变化的范围和速度越来越快，这些设施在今后几年将更加重要。许多野外台站位于相对不受人类干扰的地区，少数台站位于人口稠密的城市地区，还有一些台站位于人口和环境梯度的沿着。它们共同有能力记录人类对自然的逐步侵入以及对自然的日益改变，从而导致栖息地、生物多样性和生态系统服务的丧失。我们可以利用这些设施来帮助找出如何减缓环境变化的速度，并控制和压缩人类活动，使地球上更多的地方不受干扰，成为更大、更完整的块。通过这些设施的研究开发的数据、信息和知识可以转化为行动，以提高人类适应极端天气事件等环境突发事件的能力（例如，飓风桑迪），并提高公众对气候变化阴险蔓延的认识，气候变化的速度太快了，决策者很容易忽视。外地工作站还发挥另一项重要作用。人们越来越认识到整合不同学科的重要性，最近被称为融合。野外工作站已经这样做了几十年，有些甚至几个世纪。但他们可以做得更多。野外工作站是理想的地方，让来自不同学科的学者和学生聚集在一起，不仅仅是为了研讨会或讲座，而是为了一个周末，一个星期，甚至整个野外季节，一起生活和工作，分享想法，并从创意磨损中受益，这是来自不同学科的想法碰撞的结果。他们可以从增加社会科学家（包括专业人员和学生）以及艺术和人文学科代表的数量开始，他们参与实地考察站项目，以解决重大的环境和社会问题。通过与其他外地站的连接，他们可以受益于与环境完全不同的社区的对话，在这些社区中，同样的问题在程度和性质上有着完全不同的表现形式。如果要在互动社区中展示其真正的价值，就必须在自然地球物理区周围建立野外台站和海洋实验室网络。野外工作站应该是探索想法和途径的温床BioScience Advance Access出版2015年3月27日
Field stations and marine labs have long been important components of the nation’s and the world’s research infrastructure, and many believe that their importance will increase in the future. But many are struggling financially. A number have been closed, and others are threatened with closure. Last year, the National Research Council completed a study at the request of the National Science Foundation to assess and make recommendations for field stations and marine labs if they are to survive and thrive in the twenty-first century. I chaired the committee that produced the report entitled Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century (NRC 2014). Preparation of the report was a collaborative effort of 12 scientists with extensive field station experience. The report (NRC 2014) was released in September 2014. In it, we pointed out that 75 percent of field stations (the term used here, as in the report, includes marine laboratories) with US addresses are affiliated with universities. Although being part of a university often is important, it is not a guarantee of fiscal viability. Many universities are facing their own financial challenges. Mergers of independent laboratories with universities bring with them the well-known challenges of integrating two distinctly different cultures. Most field stations have less formal organizational structures and bureaucracies than do large universities. Some field stations whose university affiliations date back many years have dealt with the clash of cultures by escaping from the campus both physically and intellectually. This separation can come at a cost, particularly when campuses are struggling: The field stations are out of sight, so they’re out of mind. The directors of field stations need to stay in close communication with their parent institutions, especially with those campus leaders who set institutional priorities and who are responsible for funding allocations and infrastructure priorities. In a statement written for the report, E. O. Wilson observed that “in the not too distant future a much larger share of biological research, from biochemistry to ecology, will be conducted at biological field stations that consist of nature preserves and have ready access to laboratories equipped to analyze and monitor processes at every level of biological organization, including the molecular.” He went on to state, “Field stations will also serve as key centers of education at all levels.” These facilities will take on added importance in the years to come as the extent and rate of environmental change grow more rapidly. Many field stations are located in areas relatively undisturbed by humans, a smaller number are located in heavily populated urban areas, and still others are located along these population and environmental gradients. Together, they have the capacity to document the progressive intrusion of humans into nature and the increasing modification of it that results in the loss of habitat, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. We can use these facilities to help figure out how to slow the rate of environmental change and to contain and then compress human activities to leave more of the Earth undisturbed in larger, unfragmented chunks. The data, information, and knowledge developed through studies at these facilities could be translated into action to increase the capacity of humans to adapt to environmental surprises such as extreme weather events (e.g., Hurricane Sandy) and to elevate the public’s awareness of the insidious creep of climate change, which occurs at a rate that is too easy for decisionand policymakers to ignore. Field stations perform another important function. There is a growing recognition of the importance of integrating the various disciplines, something that recently has been given the name convergence. Field stations have been doing this for decades and some for centuries. But they can do much more. Field stations are ideal places to bring scholars and students from different disciplines together not just for a seminar or a lecture but for a weekend, a week, or even an entire field season to live and work together, to share ideas, and to benefit from the creative abrasion that results from the collision of ideas—particularly ideas from different disciplines. They can start by increasing the number of social scientists—both professionals and students—and representatives of the arts and humanities who participate in field station programs to address major environmental and societal issues. And through connectivity with other field stations, they can benefit from dialogue with communities in quite different environments, where the same issues have quite different expressions in both degree and in kind. Networking of field stations and marine labs in clusters around natural biogeophysical areas is essential if they are to demonstrate their true value in an interactive community. Field stations should be hotbeds for the exploration of ideas and pathways BioScience Advance Access published March 27, 2015