Research at Multiple Scales: A Vision for Continental Scale Biology

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Recent advances in biological science infrastructure, technology, and culture and associated data and information science have given us the tools to begin to refine small and large-scale understanding about how living systems function. Furthermore, these studies highlight the importance of understanding how micro-scale and macro (or continental) scale studies give insights to the living world but how these multiple processes interact remains unclear. This study will explore questions and recommend research structures that can guide biological research across this range of scales to inform our understanding of the relationships and interdependencies of living systems. With support from this award, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Board on Life Sciences (NASEM) will conduct a consensus study to identify how biological research at multiple scales can inform the development of a continental scale biology. The committee will convene a series of virtual community workshops to inform its deliberations. The committee will identify and discuss practices that have been used successfully to translate knowledge, approaches, and tools from small-scale biological research to regional- and continental-scale, and vice versa; challenges that prevent uptake of these practices; and specific research questions that could serve as pilots for implementing research projects that integrate one or more successful practices. The outcomes from these discussions will be include a proceedings, which will be peer reviewed and published through the established NASEM processes. Addressing critical scientific and societal challenges related to climate and biodiversity changes requires a convergent strategy that builds on our understanding of how processes at multiple scales inform and constrain critical processes at continental scales. A critical gap exists in our ability to understand these changes at continental scales and how both top down and bottom-up processes control the dynamics occurring at continental scales. What is lacking is an understanding of how these efforts can contribute to a more wholistic understanding necessary to address rapidly emerging biodiversity and climate changes. The assessment and synthesis activities supported by this award are designed explicitly to provide a vision for continental-scale biology that takes advantage of recent cultural, technological, and infrastructural advances to address the emergence of new fundamental questions and help respond to global challenges to biodiversity and coping with the impacts of the many sources of environmental change. NASEM has published several reports describing the Nation’s environmental and biodiversity challenges which will inform discussions and the project outcomes. The goal for the report is to assist NSF, other funding organizations, and the biological science community in identifying productive routes for the development of continental-scale biology and strategies to facilitate the concomitant reunification of biology across structural and functional scales. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.