Disconnect between academic research and field conservation efforts?

[AlanM]

Someone who has been around longer than I have can maybe speak to this, but it seems like we hear a lot of talks, both at MACNA and at WAMAS meetings, from people who know a ton from work in the field about coral reefs.  They are all working really hard to try to breed corals, protect reefs, etc.  But it seems like all of them came into that work from a passion for the animals rather than from an advanced academic background.  

 

Maybe it's just that PhD marine biologists don't make a habit of coming to talk to hobby marine fish clubs, but the impression I get is that there are probably eggheads working in the lab who could offer a lot of basic knowledge about coral larval development, settling, and initial growth to help out efforts like SECORE and CRF, but instead the folks working at those restoration efforts are cobbling together funds and using a shoestring budget and basically left with using trial and error and sweat to see what works.  

 

The biologists working in the lab and writing papers for high impact journals in marine biology and oceanography probably work like rest of us doing basic research in my lab.  You investigate a specific interesting problem, you do an experiment showing conditions and effects data reduction and analysis and hopefully discover something that hasn't been documented before.  You and your collaborators write up a paper to submit, and then you move on to the next experiment while it's being considered for publication or the next step in the current experiment if your results were promising.  

 

In the abstract or conclusions they might even say how it has implications for ocean acidification (or temperature rise) causing descruction of our reefs or coral bleaching or habitat desctuction or whatever, but is there a knowledge transfer to the guys getting their hands wet trying to grow corals and save the reefs.

 

From my (possibly misinformed) perspective it seems like there needs to be a middle ground, like a match.com to connect people putting on scuba gear and trying to save the reefs with the people working for universities and government agencies doing basic research on the life cycles of the organisms.

 

Am I off-base or is this what's happening?

[Origami]

There is a unique nexus between the hobbyist and the academic in this field that may not exist in other areas. Those that we see often are in this nexus whether they are more easily classified as an advanced hobbyist that is making contributions that are used in research, or academics that are making contributions of interest to typical hobbyists. It does not always take an advanced degree to make important contributions and I think that we see that a lot here. Many, many of our speakers (in WAMAS and at MACNA) have been practicing marine biologists, many with advanced degrees. However, many also have been hobbyists who've made an impact or significant contribution to the hobby. These include Dr. Mary Hagedorn, who spoke to the club a few years ago, Colin Foord, Karen Brittain, Christine Williams, Scott Fellman, Bob Fenner and many others. MACNA's list is far longer.

 

However, at some point, the academic perspective may get too academic to generate sufficient interest or attention from the average hobbyist. Those contributions are important, but may not resonate. A big part of our mission is to find that nexus where meaningful interchange of ideas and understanding can occur between the communities. And that is probably why you see what you do at these various events. 

[mogurnda]

A couple of thoughts.  

 

First, the academic research does make its way to the hobbyist via the speakers we have.  When Rick spoke yesterday about the effects of sunscreen on reefs, those observations came from academic research.  Would it be better to hear from the people who did the original observations?  Maybe, but a lot depends on the time pressures on the researchers and their ability to speak to the public.  Putting together a talk for non-specialists is rewarding but very time-consuming.  

 

Second, I believe the links to academia could be stronger.  At UM, we are encouraged to do outreach, and there are rewards for it.  For example, when writing NSF grants, "broader impacts," which include community outreach, are increasingly important for securing funding. Also, this kind of thing looks good on the individual's annual report to the university.  What is missing is the linkage between the hobbyist society and the academic world.

 

With regard to the idea that the research is "too academic," I would argue that any research can be explained to any audience.  I am not the world's best speaker, but last week I managed to have a room full of high school students actively engaged in discussing my research using fruit flies to study anesthesia, so anything's possible.  Yes, it is easier to explain your work to fellow specialists, but talking to general audiences can often be a very useful exercise in stepping back and looking at the big picture.

 

I don't have an easy solution, but I think this is worth devoting some energy to.  As a club,  WAMAS has taken leadership in the hobby on a lot of fronts, so can we play a role in making stronger links between hobbyists and scientists?  

Edited February 21, 2016 by mogurnda

[Keraxis]

There was actually a major problem with the sunscreen test he referred.  Unless they have redone the test they took a coral.  placed it into a bag and then dumped sunscreen into the water.  Which is 100 times more contact then corals would get through natural use and there is no current in the bag so it just stews with them.  Pretty much anything will die like that.  The other issue with the test is that sunscreens float.  Corals being 10 to 80 feet average would not get much if any contact with the chemical. Christine Williams spoke on this a while back and her background is biochemist and molecular biology.  She also spoke about what natural means and we would not consider it natural at all when referring to sunscreens

Edited February 21, 2016 by Keraxis

[Keraxis]

Dont miss understand.. Sunscreen could be effecting corals but my issue was the way the test was conducted.  A wave pool with coral and levels of sunscreen currently being reduced would have to be used for it to be valid.  I cant find a new article on how Craig Downs did his testing so I assume its the same one I previously read. 

[AlanM]

I remember reading that the sunscreen thing was debunked.  Also it was supposed to be avo/oxy benzone that did it, but that's the chemical that the reef safe ones seem to have in them.  Weirdness.  If someone has a reference to some better conclusions I'd be interested in seeing them.

 

On the academic/conservationist/activist/hobbyist topic, I often wonder if someone couldn't bring some technical expertise and real funding from NOAA or NSF to help out.  I wonder this while sitting in meetings listening to talks by our speakers who are often entertaining talking about their struggles with cobbled together equipment, extremely manual data collection, and about $2 in funding.  Maybe experience with Matlab or photon detection or measurement electronics or even just expertise in NSF grant application writing would be a big help.  

 

Just spitballing here, but maybe the problems getting coral larvae to settle and start to encrust is partially a substrate problem and someone doing research on nano-scale materials could look at the shape of the larvae and the chemistry of the initial encrustation and develop the ideal substrate material. Like maybe they need to make friends with some physicists who'd like to do something new.

 

I'm spoiled by working at a well funded national research facility, but even there I keep thinking there's an opportunity for someone to bring some samples in and do some measurements to learn lots of interesting things about coral morphology.  We're a user facility available to the public for free and so are places like the SNS in Oak Ridge, TN and APS at Argonne Lab, and lots of other big characterization facilities.  Lots of biologists are using our facilities and computer simulations to study drug delivery and biofilms and membranes and protein folding and a pile of other stuff, but no marine biologists yet. Where can I find one to get in there and start doing cool stuff?

[mogurnda]

I was using the sunscreen issue to make a point, and in fact it made the point that more scientific discussion is better than less.  I am on the fence  about sunscreens, and have no idea how they know what a "coral safe" sunscreen is.

 

Alan, you are so totally right that there are probably people dying to collaborate with you.  One of my colleagues was doing some very cool work with the effects of anesthetics on membranes with some people up there.