Biogeosciences Perspectives on Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) Science

Abstract

This article is composed of three independent commentaries about the state of Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (ICON) principles in the American Geophysical Union Biogeosciences section, and discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. Each commentary focuses on a different topic: (a) Global collaboration, technology transfer, and application (Section 2), (b) Community engagement, community science, education, and stakeholder involvement (Section 3), and (c) Field, experimental, remote sensing, and real-time data research and application (Section 4). We discuss needs and strategies for implementing ICON and outline short- and long-term goals. The inclusion of global data and international community engagement are key to tackling grand challenges in biogeosciences. Although recent technological advances and growing open-access information across the world have enabled global collaborations to some extent, several barriers, ranging from technical to organizational to cultural, have remained in advancing interoperability and tangible scientific progress in biogeosciences. Overcoming these hurdles is necessary to address pressing large-scale research questions and applications in the biogeosciences, where ICON principles are essential. Here, we list several opportunities for ICON, including coordinated experimentation and field observations across global sites, that are ripe for implementation in biogeosciences as a means to scientific advancements and social progress.

Keywords: Coordinated; Integrated; Networked; Open; citizen; community.

Figure 1

Biogeosciences, an inherently interdisciplinary field, needs ICON to address urgent and multiscale global problems, where process‐complexity and need for ICON increase with scale, and to reduce geographical bias in data and scientific progress. Various challenges hinder ICON in biogeosciences, but perhaps the most critical ones revolve around cultural and institutional barriers that prevent data sharing and cross‐border collaborations. Our recommended short‐ and long‐term solutions focus on people‐centric actions to break these barriers, especially for low‐to‐middle‐income countries (LMIC) researchers.