Competing visions of science and policy within the ecological research community: Opportunities for and/or barriers to translational ecology

Background/Question/Methods

Taken as a discipline, ecological science is incredibly wide ranging. Ecologists examine phenomena on scales ranging from microscopic through continental; employ behavioral observation, experimentation, theoretical modeling, and any number of other methods; focus on nearly pristine systems as well as those that are entirely anthropogenic; and in the United States receive funding from sources including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Defense, and the National Science foundation, amongst others. Historians of science tell us that intellectual traditions as diverse as natural history and atomic physics have shaped portions of our discipline in substantive ways. The sub-disciplines of ecology that emerge from these varied influences have unique intellectual histories, organizing principles, and epistemological norms. This diverse ecosystem of approaches provides opportunities for fruitful collaborations and creative tensions, but it also presents unique challenges as the discipline begins to embrace translation ecology. I report on several recent social science studies that explore how ecologists navigate these competing traditions and other professional and normative considerations as they evaluate potential future research priorities.

Results/Conclusions

The results indicate that amongst the other axes of diversity embedded within our discipline is a wide range of ideas of how ecologists can and should engage with the public and with policy makers. Briefly, some ecologists see their work as being valuable precisely because they engage in long-term communication with potential knowledge users; other see that approach as antithetical to science. Some scientists value knowledge that they feel with inform management decisions, while others believe application-motivated research is unlikely to yield important insights. When left unspoken, my research suggests that these varied interpretations of the engagement of science with policy may yield unintended and counterproductive disciplinary path dependencies. The advent of translational ecology may offer our discipline an opportunity to ensure that we provide the ecological knowledge that society needs in order to navigate our changing world.