Earth's Future (May 2024)
A Convergence Science Approach to Understanding the Changing Arctic
- Valeriy Y. Ivanov,
- Peter S. Ungar,
- John P. Ziker,
- Svetlana Abdulmanova,
- Gerardo Celis,
- Andrew Dixon,
- Dorothee Ehrich,
- Ivan Fufachev,
- Olivier Gilg,
- Mary Heskel,
- Desheng Liu,
- Marc Macias‐Fauria,
- Valeriy Mazepa,
- Karl Mertens,
- Pavel Orekhov,
- Alexandria Peterson,
- Olga Pokrovskaya,
- Aleksey Sheshukov,
- Aleksandr Sokolov,
- Natalia Sokolova,
- Marcus Spiegel,
- Matt Sponheimer,
- Florian Stammler,
- Tyeen Taylor,
- Alexandra Terekhina,
- Victor Valdayskikh,
- Alexander Volkovitskiy,
- Jingfeng Wang,
- Wenbo Zhou
Affiliations
- Valeriy Y. Ivanov
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA
- Peter S. Ungar
- Department of Anthropology University of Arkansas Fayetteville AR USA
- John P. Ziker
- Department of Anthropology Boise State University Boise ID USA
- Svetlana Abdulmanova
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Gerardo Celis
- Department of Anthropology University of Arkansas Fayetteville AR USA
- Andrew Dixon
- Mohamed Bin Zayed Raptor Conservation Fund Abu Dhabi UAE
- Dorothee Ehrich
- Department of Arctic and Marine Biology The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway
- Ivan Fufachev
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Olivier Gilg
- Laboratoire Chrono‐Environnement UMR 6249 CNRS Université de Franche‐Comté, Besançon, France & Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique Francheville France
- Mary Heskel
- Department of Biology Macalester College Saint Paul MN USA
- Desheng Liu
- Department of Geography Ohio State University Columbus OH USA
- Marc Macias‐Fauria
- Department of Geography and the Scott Polar Research Institute University of Cambridge Cambridge UK
- Valeriy Mazepa
- Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yekaterinburg Russia
- Karl Mertens
- Department of Anthropology Boise State University Boise ID USA
- Pavel Orekhov
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Alexandria Peterson
- University of Arkansas, Environmental Dynamics Program Fayetteville AR USA
- Olga Pokrovskaya
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Aleksey Sheshukov
- Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering Kansas State University Manhattan KS USA
- Aleksandr Sokolov
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Natalia Sokolova
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Marcus Spiegel
- School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford UK
- Matt Sponheimer
- Department of Anthropology University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USA
- Florian Stammler
- Arctic Centre, University of Lapland Rovaniemi Finland
- Tyeen Taylor
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA
- Alexandra Terekhina
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Victor Valdayskikh
- Ural Federal University Yekaterinburg Russia
- Alexander Volkovitskiy
- Arctic Research Station, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Labytnangi Russia
- Jingfeng Wang
- School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta GA USA
- Wenbo Zhou
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2023EF004157
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 12,
no. 5
pp. n/a – n/a
Abstract
Abstract Science, engineering, and society increasingly require integrative thinking about emerging problems in complex systems, a notion referred to as convergence science. Due to the concurrent pressures of two main stressors—rapid climate change and industrialization, Arctic research demands such a paradigm of scientific inquiry. This perspective represents a synthesis of a vision for its application in Arctic system studies, developed by a group of disciplinary experts consisting of social and earth system scientists, ecologists, and engineers. Our objective is to demonstrate how convergence research questions can be developed via a holistic view of system interactions that are then parsed into material links and concrete inquiries of disciplinary and interdisciplinary nature. We illustrate the application of the convergence science paradigm to several forms of Arctic stressors using the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic as a representative natural laboratory with a biogeographic gradient from the forest‐tundra ecotone to the high Arctic.
Keywords
- Abrupt/rapid climate change
- climate impacts
- impacts of global change
- human impacts
- new fields
- convergence science
