Seite - 16 - in options, Band summer 2015

16 options + summer 2015 The more interconnected the system, the greater the potential for sudden and often unwelcome changes. While Levin and colleagues studied the vulnerabilities of the financial system, he argues that the potential for disaster also exists in naturally interconnected systems such as the world’s oceans, where harvesting one fish species can directly impact the health of another. Rather than looking for isolated solvable chunks within challenges, researchers have to appreciate the big picture and take a more systems approach to problem solving, Levin says. And so interdisciplinary research becomes a necessity, because such systems traverse the disciplines and it takes a diverse array of expertise to study them. Using such an approach, scientists could begin to understand the risks of interconnectivity, anticipate possible problems, and mitigate their impacts. Such research could also inform policies that could either prevent disasters or make the impacts less damaging. “You won’t be able to predict exactly when the changes will occur, or what the nature of them will be; but you at least have the potential to take steps to move you back from the brink,” Levin says. In the recent study led by Levin, the scientists were able to identify the traits of the most resilient management systems— traits that forward thinking policies could encourage. “You need a system that has a surveillance component and some early warning indicators to tell you there’s a problem,” Levin says. “Then, most importantly, the system needs some adaptive flexibility in it so that it can learn.” Combining strengths IIASA scientist Ulf Dieckmann certainly appreciates the interconnectivity of ocean food systems. His research on the wild salmon populations in Alaska’s Bristol Bay has demonstrated that fishing practices—notably harvesting the bigger fishes—has led to an evolutionary trend toward smaller adult fish. “The reason why evolution is so rapid is because the pressures we humans put on the fish stocks is so strong,” says Dieckmann, who is IIASA’s Evolution and Ecology Program director. “These fish experience very strong selection pressures so evolution can occur on a timescale of ten or twenty years.” It was a finding that was only possible using the combined strengths of scientists from different disciplines, Dieckmann says. Dieckmann, who is a theoretical physicist by training, built the models for his research by collaborating with experienced fisheries biologists. The process involved using the knowledge gleaned from the field scientists and then representing that information in a quantitative mathematical form. “So the process works by two people of equal but differing intellects and skills coming to the table,” Dieckmann says. When it comes to addressing certain challenges in natural resource management, interdisciplinarity is inescapable, as  ecological and evolutionary knowledge has to be integrated into the models, Dieckmann says. Researchers considering impacts on food sustainability also need to take into account economics and human behavior. While fisheries ecologists have not accounted for evolution until very recently, fishery managers need to be aware that such evolutionary pressures tend to influence yield and could jeopardize the ability of exploited fish populations to respond to future environmental or management changes, Dieckmann says. His team’s interdisciplinary research is helping fisheries managers perform integrative cost-benefit analyses for their management decisions. As such, it has immediate policy relevance. “Integrative assessments must be part of sustainable resource management in general and of fisheries management in particular,” Dieckmann says. Interdisciplinary insights While interdisciplinary research can help scientists gain a big picture view of complex problems, and unite strengths from different disciplines, it can also lead to unconventional new insights, says Wolfgang Lutz, IIASA’s World Population Program director, whose  work has addressed effects of climate change on the human population. Much analysis had been done on factors determining vulnerability to natural disasters such as Hurricane Mitch in the Caribbean. But when Lutz and his team revisited the data and added information on the level of education that had not been accounted for initially, they found How can an institute encourage interdisciplinary  research? For interdisciplinary research to thrive, a research organization has to create an environment where researchers can easily mix and interact, according to Wolfgang Lutz. At IIASA, scientists meet over lunch and go to seminars. “So we understand not only what are the questions that other people are addressing, but how are they thinking,” Lutz says. Such interactions lead to new ideas and insights, he says. Simon Levin believes that choosing researchers who like to talk to other people and think outside their discipline is key. “They have to be people who are strongly based in a discipline but with a respect for, and interest in, what goes on in other disciplines,” Levin says. Then, a research center has to create the spaces and opportunities for these people to come together and talk. Sometimes an institute can lend support by creating the infrastructure and incentive for such collaborative research, says Ulf Dieckmann. “At IIASA the recently established cross-cutting projects are really giving a new push, a new momentum, to building bridges between diverse parts of the IIASA research portfolio,” he says. +