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Ayllón D, Grimm V, Attinger S, et al. Cross-disciplinary links in environmental systems science: Current state and claimed needs identified in a meta-review of process models. Sci Total Environ. 2017;622:954-973doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007.
Ayllón, D., Grimm, V., Attinger, S., Hauhs, M., Simmer, C., Vereecken, H., & Lischeid, G. (2018). Cross-disciplinary links in environmental systems science: Current state and claimed needs identified in a meta-review of process models. The Science of the total environment, 622954-973. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007
Ayllón, Daniel, et al. "Cross-disciplinary links in environmental systems science: Current state and claimed needs identified in a meta-review of process models." The Science of the total environment vol. 622 (2018): 954-973. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007
Ayllón D, Grimm V, Attinger S, Hauhs M, Simmer C, Vereecken H, Lischeid G. Cross-disciplinary links in environmental systems science: Current state and claimed needs identified in a meta-review of process models. Sci Total Environ. 2018 May 01;622:954-973. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007. Epub 2017 Dec 13. PMID: 29227946.
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Sci Total Environ. 2018 May 01;622:954-973. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007. Epub 2017 Dec 13.

Cross-disciplinary links in environmental systems science: Current state and claimed needs identified in a meta-review of process models.

The Science of the total environment

Daniel Ayllón, Volker Grimm, Sabine Attinger, Michael Hauhs, Clemens Simmer, Harry Vereecken, Gunnar Lischeid

Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Ecological Modelling, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Landscape Hydrology, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
  2. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Ecological Modelling, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany; University of Potsdam, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, Maulbeerallee 2, 14469 Potsdam, Germany; German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
  3. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Department of Computational Hydrosystems, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany.
  4. University of Bayreuth, Ecological Modelling, Dr.-Hans-Frisch-Straße 1-3, 95448 Bayreuth, Germany.
  5. University of Bonn, Meteorological Institute, Auf dem Huegel 20, 53121 Bonn, Germany.
  6. Agrosphere Institute, IBG-3, Institute of Biogeosciences, Leo Brandt Stra?e, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
  7. Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research, Institute of Landscape Hydrology, Eberswalder Str. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany; University of Potsdam, Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24-25, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany.

PMID: 29227946 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.007

Abstract

Terrestrial environmental systems are characterised by numerous feedback links between their different compartments. However, scientific research is organized into disciplines that focus on processes within the respective compartments rather than on interdisciplinary links. Major feedback mechanisms between compartments might therefore have been systematically overlooked so far. Without identifying these gaps, initiatives on future comprehensive environmental monitoring schemes and experimental platforms might fail. We performed a comprehensive overview of feedbacks between compartments currently represented in environmental sciences and explores to what degree missing links have already been acknowledged in the literature. We focused on process models as they can be regarded as repositories of scientific knowledge that compile findings of numerous single studies. In total, 118 simulation models from 23 model types were analysed. Missing processes linking different environmental compartments were identified based on a meta-review of 346 published reviews, model intercomparison studies, and model descriptions. Eight disciplines of environmental sciences were considered and 396 linking processes were identified and ascribed to the physical, chemical or biological domain. There were significant differences between model types and scientific disciplines regarding implemented interdisciplinary links. The most wide-spread interdisciplinary links were between physical processes in meteorology, hydrology and soil science that drive or set the boundary conditions for other processes (e.g., ecological processes). In contrast, most chemical and biological processes were restricted to links within the same compartment. Integration of multiple environmental compartments and interdisciplinary knowledge was scarce in most model types. There was a strong bias of suggested future research foci and model extensions towards reinforcing existing interdisciplinary knowledge rather than to open up new interdisciplinary pathways. No clear pattern across disciplines exists with respect to suggested future research efforts. There is no evidence that environmental research would clearly converge towards more integrated approaches or towards an overarching environmental systems theory.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Integrated environmental modelling; Interdisciplinary links; Research needs; Review

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