RCN:MSB:FRA: Grassroots global network science: a macrosystems model

Cary Institute Of Ecosystem Studies, Inc., Millbrook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Freshwater lakes and rivers sustain human economies, food supplies, and environmental and human health. In fact, modern societies are global networks of goods and services that are entirely dependent on freshwater. Rapid global changes threaten many freshwater ecosystems across the globe, and the human networks that depend on them. Given the 100+ million lakes across the globe, very little is known about the role of lakes in regional-to-continental and even global-scale landscape function. The limited understanding comes from in-depth study of a handful of lakes, and it is assumed these represent the whole. What is needed is an expansion of studies to regions, continents, and ultimately the globe and to put that knowledge in the system contexts in which lakes sit - their atmospheric and surrounding land systems. Diverse perspectives, tools, and networks must be brought together to understand how global influences affect local water quality, the role of freshwater lakes in landscapes, and whether there are scaling rules (space and time) for generating regional- to continental- to cross-continental models for understanding how lake function. This need is far too vast to be the exclusive purview of any existing academic, research, federal, or private-sector network. This project will build a global network of networks that includes scientists, as well as citizen scientists, to understand lake function over a variety of spatial and temporal scales and with different intensities of human-induced change. The overarching goal of this research is to use lessons, data, and physical and human infrastructure developed within the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network to build an inclusive global network of networks capable of synthesizing information about lakes in the context of their connections to and feedbacks from the atmospheric, terrestrial, and human landscapes in which they sit. The assembly of resources, including human, data, and technical, will work in concert with the global network as a Research Coordination Network in the service of diverse teams of scientists who can take on big macrosystem science questions with effectiveness and persistence. Specifically, the proposed work will (i) develop a network capacity for incorporating and studying the interactions of atmosphere-terrestrial-aquatic systems by expanding their resource availability, human expertise, and connection to existing research programs; (ii) build on an existing, successful, learning organization that can accommodate new disciplines and needs; and (iii) use the enhanced/expanded network to provide a new capacity for doing the science of - and scientific training essential for - macrosystems biology about lakes embedded in atmosphere-terrestrial-human landscapes. Cross cutting scientific themes include exploration of feedbacks among and drivers in atmospheric-terrestrial-lake ecosystems, controls on material flow, and scaling from ecosystems to macrosystems. Early career scientists will be encouraged to lead expeditions, with later career scientists as co-leaders. Based on past experience, this model builds the team for team science, leads to a major expansion of collaborative networks for participants, especially for early career scientists, and results in innovative interdisciplinary products. This award is cofunded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and includes collaborations with scientists in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Estonia, Taiwan, China, and Argentina.