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1. Urban streams in Latin America: Current conditions and research needs

   https://doi.org/10.15517/RBT.V68IS2.44330  

   Walteros, Jeymmy M. ; Ramírez, Alonso ( October 2020 , Revista de Biología Tropical)

   null (Ed.)

   Introduction: Latin America is a highly urbanized region, with most of its population living in cities and urban centers. While information about urban streams in Latin America is rather limited, streams are expected to experience similar environmental impacts and conservation issues as urban streams in parts of the globe, including habitat loss, channelization, sewage discharge, trash, and loss of riparian habitats. Objective: We surveyed a network of researchers from approximately 80% of the countries in Latin America to obtain information on the condition, state of knowledge, and threats to urban streams in the region. Methods: Most participants were reached via the Macrolatinos@ network (www.macrolatinos.net). Results: We obtained 104 responses from researchers in 18 of the 23 Latin American countries. Most urban streams are impacted or degraded, and inputs of contaminants and wastewater discharges were considered major drivers of stream degradation. Most respondents indicated that stream channelization is common, with some streams completely channelized or buried. Sewage and rainfall runoff management were identified as a major factor degrading streams, with most respondents suggesting that streams are a primary destination for wastewater discharge, much of which is untreated. Major limitations to urban stream conservation in Latin America are the result of limited ecological knowledge, lack of citizen interest or political will to protect them. There are isolated efforts to restore urban streams and riparian zones, but these are initial steps that need further development. Conclusions: Our research network of Latin American scientists proved to be a valuable tool to assess a large number of urban rivers in a relatively understudied region.  Urban streams in Latin America face a diversity of stressors and management challenges, and we propose three areas that would benefit from further research to improve our understanding and management of these systems: (1) Studies should focus on the watershed, rather than isolated reaches, (2) researchers should strive to attain a better understanding of ecosystem function and the services provided by urban streams to justify management and restoration efforts, and (3) studies that integrate economic models where downstream users pay for upstream protection and restoration could prove beneficial for many Latin American cities in attempting to address water conservation issues. 

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2. Activating social change together: A qualitative synthesis of collaborative change research, evaluation and design literature

   https://doi.org/http:dx.doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v12i1.6693  

   Busch, Melida D ; Jean-Baptiste, Elizabeth ; Person, Pamela F ; Vaughn, Lisa M. ( December 2019 , Gateways)

   Researchers, evaluators and designers from an array of academic disciplines and industry sectors are turning to participatory approaches as they seek to understand and address complex social problems. We refer to participatory approaches that collaboratively engage/ partner with stakeholders in knowledge creation/problem solving for action/social change outcomes as collaborative change research, evaluation and design (CCRED). We further frame CCRED practitioners by their desire to move beyond knowledge creation for its own sake to implementation of new knowledge as a tool for social change. In March and May of 2018, we conducted a literature search of multiple discipline-specific databases seeking collaborative, change-oriented scholarly publications. The search was limited to include peerreviewed journal articles, with English language abstracts available, published in the last five years. The search resulted in 526 citations, 236 of which met inclusion criteria. Though the search was limited to English abstracts, all major geographic regions (North America, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean, APAC, Africa and the Middle East) were represented within the results, although many articles did not state a specific region. Of those identified, most studies were located in North America, with the Middle East having only one identified study. We followed a qualitative thematic synthesis process to examine the abstracts of peer-reviewed articles to identify practices that transcend individual disciplines, sectors and contexts to achieve collaborative change. We surveyed the terminology used to describe CCRED, setting, content/topic of study, type of collaboration, and related benefits/outcomes in order to discern the words used to designate collaboration, the frameworks, tools and methods employed, and the presence of action, evaluation or outcomes. Forty-three percent of the reviewed articles fell broadly within the social sciences, followed by 26 percent in education and 25 percent in health/medicine. In terms of participants and/ or collaborators in the articles reviewed, the vast majority of the 236 articles (86%) described participants, that is, those who the research was about or from whom data was collected. In contrast to participants, partners/collaborators (n=32; 14%) were individuals or groups who participated in the design or implementation of the collaborative change effort described. In terms of the goal for collaboration and/or for doing the work, the most frequently used terminology related to some aspect of engagement and empowerment. Common descriptors for the work itself were ‘social change’ (n=74; 31%), ‘action’ (n=33; 14%), ‘collaborative or participatory research/practice’ (n=13; 6%), ‘transformation’ (n=13; 6%) and ‘community engagement’ (n=10; 4%). Of the 236 articles that mentioned a specific framework or approach, the three most common were some variation of Participatory Action Research (n=30; 50%), Action Research (n=40; 16.9%) or Community-Based Participatory Research (n=17; 7.2%). Approximately a third of the 236 articles did not mention a specific method or tool in the abstract. The most commonly cited method/tool (n=30; 12.7%) was some variation of an arts-based method followed by interviews (n=18; 7.6%), case study (n=16; 6.7%), or an ethnographic-related method (n=14; 5.9%). While some articles implied action or change, only 14 of the 236 articles (6%) stated a specific action or outcome. Most often, the changes described were: the creation or modification of a model, method, process, framework or protocol (n=9; 4%), quality improvement, policy change and social change (n=8; 3%), or modifications to education/training methods and materials (n=5; 2%). The infrequent use of collaboration as a descriptor of partner engagement, coupled with few reported findings of measurable change, raises questions about the nature of CCRED. It appears that conducting CCRED is as complex an undertaking as the problems that the work is attempting to address. 

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3. Extending Our Scientific Reach in Arboreal Ecosystems for Research and Management

   https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.712165  

   Cannon, Charles H. ; Borchetta, Colby ; Anderson, David L. ; Arellano, Gabriel ; Barker, Martin ; Charron, Guillaume ; LaMontagne, Jalene M. ; Richards, Jeannine H. ; Abercrombie, Ethan ; Banin, Lindsay F. ; et al ( November 2021 , Frontiers in Forests and Global Change)

   The arboreal ecosystem is vitally important to global and local biogeochemical processes, the maintenance of biodiversity in natural systems, and human health in urban environments. The ability to collect samples, observations, and data to conduct meaningful scientific research is similarly vital. The primary methods and modes of access remain limited and difficult. In an online survey, canopy researchers ( n = 219) reported a range of challenges in obtaining adequate samples, including ∼10% who found it impossible to procure what they needed. Currently, these samples are collected using a combination of four primary methods: (1) sampling from the ground; (2) tree climbing; (3) constructing fixed infrastructure; and (4) using mobile aerial platforms, primarily rotorcraft drones. An important distinction between instantaneous and continuous sampling was identified, allowing more targeted engineering and development strategies. The combination of methods for sampling the arboreal ecosystem provides a range of possibilities and opportunities, particularly in the context of the rapid development of robotics and other engineering advances. In this study, we aim to identify the strategies that would provide the benefits to a broad range of scientists, arborists, and professional climbers and facilitate basic discovery and applied management. Priorities for advancing these efforts are (1) to expand participation, both geographically and professionally; (2) to define 2–3 common needs across the community; (3) to form and motivate focal teams of biologists, tree professionals, and engineers in the development of solutions to these needs; and (4) to establish multidisciplinary communication platforms to share information about innovations and opportunities for studying arboreal ecosystems. 

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4. US-Serbia and West Balkan Data Science Workshop

   Obradovic, Zoran ( January 2020 , NSF Workshop Reports)

   The project mission was to organize a workshop aimed to explore how the US data science community can cooperate with and benefit from collaborations with partners in Serbia and the West Balkan region. The scope included fundamental data science methods and high-impact applications related to big data processing, security and privacy in critical infrastructures, biomedical informatics, and computational archeology. The proposed workshop facilitated closing the gap between data science research in the US and Serbia and the region and brought together data scientists with researchers from disciplines that until recently had little exposure to data science methods, potentially enabling collaborative breakthroughs in those scientific fields. A large fraction of participants from both sides were early career researchers including advanced level graduate students, postdoctoral research associates, and assistant/associate professors within 10 years of obtaining their Ph.D. The participants included a large fraction of female and minority scientists. The workshop objective was achieved by including the following inter-related objectives: (1) Establishing new multidisciplinary international collaborations between data science, mathematics, and sciences that generate big data and require advanced methods; (2) Reinforcing collaboration mechanisms between the NSF and Serbia’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and organize joint research projects; and (3) Widening the impact of the workshop, by involving researchers and stakeholders from the West Balkan region. The workshop consisted of four tracks, each co-chaired by 3 investigators from the US, Serbia and another West Balkan country. Tangible outcomes from the workshop include a report describing workshop activities for each of four tracks and a proposal recommending research collaboration areas of interest for all parties and determining collaboration mechanisms and programs to facilitate collaboration. 

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5. How Reproducibility Will Accelerate Discovery Through Collaboration in Physio-Logging

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.917976  

   Czapanskiy, Max F. ; Beltran, Roxanne S. ( July 2022 , Frontiers in Physiology)

   What new questions could ecophysiologists answer if physio-logging research was fully reproducible? We argue that technical debt (computational hurdles resulting from prioritizing short-term goals over long-term sustainability) stemming from insufficient cyberinfrastructure (field-wide tools, standards, and norms for analyzing and sharing data) trapped physio-logging in a scientific silo. This debt stifles comparative biological analyses and impedes interdisciplinary research. Although physio-loggers (e.g., heart rate monitors and accelerometers) opened new avenues of research, the explosion of complex datasets exceeded ecophysiology’s informatics capacity. Like many other scientific fields facing a deluge of complex data, ecophysiologists now struggle to share their data and tools. Adapting to this new era requires a change in mindset, from “data as a noun” (e.g., traits, counts) to “data as a sentence”, where measurements (nouns) are associate with transformations (verbs), parameters (adverbs), and metadata (adjectives). Computational reproducibility provides a framework for capturing the entire sentence. Though usually framed in terms of scientific integrity, reproducibility offers immediate benefits by promoting collaboration between individuals, groups, and entire fields. Rather than a tax on our productivity that benefits some nebulous greater good, reproducibility can accelerate the pace of discovery by removing obstacles and inviting a greater diversity of perspectives to advance science and society. In this article, we 1) describe the computational challenges facing physio-logging scientists and connect them to the concepts of technical debt and cyberinfrastructure , 2) demonstrate how other scientific fields overcame similar challenges by embracing computational reproducibility, and 3) present a framework to promote computational reproducibility in physio-logging, and bio-logging more generally. 

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