With generous support from the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, the Pacific Science Association organized and sponsored a symposium on “Pacific Science: U.S.-Asia/Pacific Collaboration in Advancing Science in the 21st Century” at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Pacific Division (AAAS-PD) Meeting in Waimea, Hawaii on 15–20 June 2008.
The objective of the symposium was to bring together scientists with experience in collaborative international research in Asia and the Pacific to discuss the opportunities and challenges for enhanced collaboration between American scientists and their counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region. Although there are many examples of very successful U.S. – Asia-Pacific scientific collaborations, these endeavors can also present challenges for researchers. This symposium addressed broader issues of collaboration, but focused on presenting examples of successful efforts that designed and conducted research that has both advanced science as well as other goals such as capacity-building and information repatriation that are important to less-developed nation-states. The meeting also addressed how regional scientific organizations, such as the Pacific Science Association, the ICSU’s Regional Office for Asia & Pacific, and the Science Council of Asia, have important roles in addressing these issues. Given increasingly critical issues of common concern such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and the demographic, environmental and social implications of globalization, greater emphasis on research that is both multidisciplinary in nature and international in scope is critical to advancing our scientific understanding of these issues and in providing information required to make scientifically sound decisions to societies and policymakers.
Dr. Peter G. Brewer, Senior Scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), gave a presentation on “Exploring the Unanticipated Consequences of Ocean Acidification by Fossil Fuel CO2,” which discussed the massive on-going transfer of fossil fuel CO2 from air to sea that is now drawing increasing scientific and public attention. Some 530 billion tons of fossil fuel CO2 have already been disposed of in the ocean, and the invasion rate is now about 1 million tons of CO2 per hour. Such quantities and rates rival or exceed those of major geologic events in Earth’s history, and the resulting rise in dissolved oceanic CO2 and lowering of ocean pH are, when combined with global warming, widely believed to pose major challenges for much marine life. Early scientific attention has been focused on calcifying marine systems, such as coral reefs and calcareous phytoplankton, as the degree of upper-ocean supersaturation with aragonite is progressively lowered. Issues of experimental technique and the adaptability of differing strains of marine organisms are now being vigorously debated. The oceanic regions that already face the most CO2 stress are the huge mid-depth oxygen minimum regions in the tropical oceans, and these regions may be expected to expand and intensify. There are formal thermodynamic limits beyond which animals cannot adapt, and these will begin to exert controls. Dr. Brewer described the problems, the observing strategies, the likely consequences, and how MBARI is working with regional counterparts in ocean acidification research.
Dr. J. Scott Hauger from the Desert Research Institute presented a paper co-authored with Qingwei Sun (Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, China), and Atsushi Tsunekawa (Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Japan) on “Global Collaboration to Address Global Problems: Trans-Pacific Collaboration for Research on Global Change and Sustainable Living on Arid Lands.” Dr. Hauger described how global climate and demographic changes are strongly impacting arid lands and the people who live in them in ways that are important but not always well understood. Understanding the nature, scope, timing, and impacts of change will be critical to the nature and quality of life in arid lands. International research collaboration to address global problems can have a multiplier effect for intellectual capital and facilitate knowledge transfer. It provides a platform for comparative and parallel studies of phenomena as observed across the world’s drylands, and provides researchers with access to facilities and equipment not locally available. Well-managed collaborations can combine resources and make for a more efficient research enterprise. Since 2004, the Desert Research Institute, has worked with the Arid Lands Research Center at Tottori University in Japan and The Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences located in Lanzhou, China to develop and implement collaborative research to address problems of sustainable living on arid lands. Dr. Hauger documented the course of building these collaborations, including successes to date, problems and barriers to effective collaboration, as well as lessons learned that can be applied for future efforts and to help inform other research collaborations across the Pacific Rim.
Dr. Christofer Boggs and Dr. Samuel G. Pooley gave a paper on “International scientific collaboration at the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center,” which described PIFSC’s engagement with regional counterparts in collaboration on a wide range of research fronts, ranging from fisheries management with Asian fishing nations, to fisheries by-catch research in Latin America and the South Pacific, to sea turtle research throughout the Pacific. All of this work requires strong person-to-person connections between researchers at PIFSC with their international peers.
Dr. Jack Regalado from the Missouri Botanical Garden presented a paper on “International Cooperation in the Study of Plant Diversity in Vietnam, 1993-2008”, which was co-authored with Le Xuan Canh, Tran Huy Thai, Tran Minh Hoi, Nguyen Tien Hiep, Vu Xuan Phuong, Ninh Khac Ban (Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), Phan Ke Loc, Nguyen Nghia Thin (Hanoi National University), Nguyen Van Tap (National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Ministry of Health), Vu Van Dung (Forest Inventory and Planning Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Nguyen Huy Dung, and Leonid V. Averyanov (Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences). The paper described how recent progress in field explorations and scientific studies of plant diversity have resulted in the discovery of new taxa and new additions to the flora of Vietnam. The collaborative efforts of the Vietnam Botanical Conservation Program, a scientific cooperation between the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources and the Missouri Botanical Garden have significantly contributed to the revitalization of plant diversity research in Vietnam. More than two hundred new taxa, including thirteen genera, of higher vascular plants have been described and seventy seven new records of plants have been similarly documented – a remarkable 3% increase in the known flora of the country. In addition to research activities, the Program has worked closely with Vietnamese partner institutions to develop competence and build capacity for the conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity. Over the past fifteen years, through its many research and training activities, the VBCP program helped establish local infrastructure that can increasingly assume responsibility for conserving and sustainably managing Vietnam’s rich biodiversity. A recent grant supported the expansion of capacity-building programs for research and conservation in Laos and Cambodia.
Dr. David Schindel, Executive Secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life at the Smithsonian Institution, gave a paper on “DNA Barcoding: International Collaboration for Species Identification in Research, Conservation, and Regulatory Affairs,” DNA barcoding was proposed in 2003 as an approach to identifying the species to which biological specimens belong using a short, standardized DNA sequence. Reference barcode data records are obtained by sequencing the barcode gene region of specimens identified by expert taxonomists. There are currently more than 350,000 barcode records from about 40,000 species. Reference records are deposited in GenBank for public access. Non-taxonomists such as government regulators and border inspectors can obtain identifications by comparing barcode sequences from unidentified organisms with the reference records. Because only a tiny amount of tissue is needed, identification of immature stages, tissue fragments, and processed products is readily facilitated. Barcoding projects, networks, and collaborative initiatives have been launched for basic research on an array of taxonomic groups and on a wide range of applied regulatory issues (e.g., species conservation, environmental monitoring, consumer protection). Two examples of great importance to Pacific nations are the use of barcodes to control the spread of invasive and pest species, and to better characterize and protect commercial fish species. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) promotes international participation and collaboration and has 170 Member Organizations from 50 countries, and plans to expand both new and existing barcoding projects in many countries in Asia and the Pacific.
Finally, Dr. Nancy Lewis (East-West Center, and PSA Vice President) gave a presentation on “The Pacific Science Association: Advancing International Collaborative Research in the Asia-Pacific Since 1920,” which outlined PSA’s role in advancing science, technology, and sustainable development in and of the Asia-Pacific region by actively promoting interdisciplinary and international research and collaboration.
