{"id":2489,"date":"2018-12-18T00:04:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T00:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/?p=2489"},"modified":"2018-12-18T00:04:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T00:04:12","slug":"inter-and-transdisciplinary-sea-otter-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/2018\/12\/18\/inter-and-transdisciplinary-sea-otter-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Inter- and Transdisciplinary Sea Otter Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dominique Kone, Masters Student, Marine Resource Management<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the human population continues to grow, so does our impact on marine environments. In many cases, these problems \u2013 such as microplastics, vessel noise, or depleted fisheries \u2013 are far too grand for any one person to tackle on their own and it takes a team effort to find adequate solutions. Experts within a single field (e.g. ecology, economics, genetics) have been collaborating to tackle these issues for decades, but there is an increasing interest and recognition of the importance in working with others outside one\u2019s own discipline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising that most collaborative efforts are between experts from the same field. It\u2019s easier to converse with those with similar vocabulary, we often enjoy learning from our peers, and our thought-processes and problem-solving skills are typically very similar. However, as issues become more complex and stretch across disciplines, the need for interdisciplinary collaboration becomes more and more imperative. As a graduate student studying marine resource management<\/a>, I\u2019ve learned the great value in conducting interdisciplinary work. Yet, I still have much to learn if I want to continue to help find solutions to the many complex marine issues. Therefore, over the next year, I\u2019ve committed to joining a interdisciplinary team of graduate students, as part of an NSF-funded fellowship program at Oregon State University (OSU), to further investigate a potential sea otter reintroduction to Oregon. Here, I provide a brief overview of the program and my team\u2019s goals for the coming year.<\/p>\n

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Source: Hakai Magazine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fellowship program emphasizes both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, so before I explain the program, it\u2019s important to first understand these terms. In short, interdisciplinarity typically relates to experts from different fields analyzing, synthesizing, and coordinating their work as a whole (Choi & Pak 2006). Another way to think about this, in more practical terms, is if two or more experts share information and learn from one another; each expert can then individually apply that information or lessons-learned to their own line of work. In contrast, transdisciplinary work is slightly more collaborative, where experts work more hand-in-hand to develop a product or solution that transcends their disciplines\u2019 traditional boundaries. The experts essentially create a product that would not have been possible working in isolation. In practice, the product(s) that stems from inter- and transdisciplinary work \u2013 if they truly are inter- or transdisciplinary by definition \u2013 is potentially very different.<\/p>\n

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Source: Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With an increasing interest in interdisciplinary work, the National Science Foundation (NSF) developed the National Research Traineeship (NRT) program to encourage select universities to develop and implement innovative and transformative models for training graduate students in STEM disciplines. After soliciting proposals, the NSF awarded OSU one of these NRT projects<\/a> to support OSU\u2019s Risk and Uncertainty Quantification in Marine Science NRT Program<\/a>. OSU\u2019s NRT program was born out of the recognition that much of the complexity of marine issues is largely due to the uncertainty of natural and human systems. Therefore, the primary purpose of this program is to train the next generation of natural resource scientists and managers to be better equipped to study and manage complex marine systems, especially under extreme uncertainty and potential risk.<\/p>\n

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Source: Oregon State University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This NRT program trains graduate students in three core concept areas: coupled natural human systems, big data, and risk and uncertainty analyses and communications. To learn these core concepts, students fulfil a minor that includes coursework in statistical inference, uncertainty quantification, risk analyses, earth system science, and social systems. In addition to the minor, students also conduct collaborative research in small (3-5 students) cross-disciplinary teams to address specific issues in marine resource management. Within each team, students come from different disciplines and fields, and must learn to work together to produce a transdisciplinary research product. Throughout the year, each team will develop a set of research questions to address their issue at hand, conduct research which links all their fields, and produce a transdisciplinary report summarizing the process they undertook and the end product. Most students who are accepted into the NRT program are awarded one-year fellowships, funded by the NSF.<\/p>\n

At the start of this academic year, I was awarded one of these NRT fellowships to address the many issues and implications of a potential sea otter reintroduction to Oregon. Over the next year, I will be working with two other OSU graduate students with backgrounds in genetics and social sciences. Our task is to not only investigate the ecological implications \u2013 which I am currently doing for my own thesis \u2013 but we are to expand this investigation<\/a> to also address many of the genetic, political, and social factors, as well. While each of us is capable of addressing one of these factors individually, the real test will be in finding linkages between each of our disciplines to make this project truly transdisciplinary.<\/p>\n

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Structure and vision of OSU\u2019s NRT program. Source: Oregon State University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since our project started, we have worked to better understand each another\u2019s expertise, interests, and the general need for a transdisciplinary project of this sort. After acquiring this base understanding, we spent a considerable amount of time developing research questions and potential methods for addressing our issue. Throughout this process, it\u2019s already become apparent that each of us is starting to learn important teamwork and collaboration skills, including effective communication and explanation of complicated concepts, active listening, critical thinking, and constructive feedback.\u00a0 While these skills are imperative for our research over the next year, they are also life-long skills that we\u2019ll continue to use in our careers beyond graduate school.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve stated previously<\/a>, learning to be an effective collaborator is extremely important to me. Getting the opportunity to work interdisciplinarily is what attracted me to my thesis, the marine resource management program, and the NRT program. By choosing to take my graduate education down this path, I\u2019ve been fortunate to obtain important skills in collaboration, as well as work on a project that allows me to tackle real-world issues and creatively develop scientifically-based solutions. I have high hopes for this NRT project, and I\u2019m excited to continue to conduct meaningful and targeted research over the next year with my new team.<\/p>\n

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2018-19 OSU NRT Cohort. Source: Oregon State University.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Choi, B. C., and A. W. Pak. Multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in health research, service, education and policy: 1. Definitions, objectives, and evidence of effectiveness. Clinical and Investigative Medicine. <\/em>29(6): 351-64.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dominique Kone, Masters Student, Marine Resource Management As the human population continues to grow, so does our impact on marine environments. In many cases, these problems \u2013 such as microplastics, vessel noise, or depleted fisheries \u2013 are far too grand for any one person to tackle on their own and it takes a team … Continue reading Inter- and Transdisciplinary Sea Otter Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1011749,1],"tags":[712786,140586,1011745,635445,173,88912,513,1237805,1398,148762,155,1011747,3540,5,1209218,564,1237807],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sea-otter-reintroduction-to-oregon","category-uncategorized","tag-collaborative-research","tag-conservation","tag-dominique-kone","tag-gemm-lab","tag-genetics","tag-management","tag-marine-mammals","tag-nrt","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-coast","tag-oregon-state-university","tag-reintroduction","tag-risk","tag-science","tag-sea-otters","tag-social-science","tag-uncertainty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2503,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/gemmlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}