Research on Biodiversity and Climate Change at a Distance: Collaboration Networks between Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Biodiversity loss and climate change are both globally significant issues that must be addressed through collaboration across countries and disciplines. With the December 2015 COP21 climate conference in Paris and the recent creation of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), it has become critical to evaluate the capacity for global research networks to develop at the interface between biodiversity and climate change. In the context of the European Union (EU) strategy to stand as a world leader in tackling global challenges, the European Commission has promoted ties between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in science, technology and innovation. However, it is not clear how these significant interactions impact scientific cooperation at the interface of biodiversity and climate change. We looked at research collaborations between two major regions-the European Research Area (ERA) and LAC-that addressed both biodiversity and climate change. We analysed the temporal evolution of these collaborations, whether they were led by ERA or LAC teams, and which research domains they covered. We surveyed publications listed on the Web of Science that were authored by researchers from both the ERA and LAC and that were published between 2003 and 2013. We also run similar analyses on other topics and other continents to provide baseline comparisons. Our results revealed a steady increase in scientific co-authorships between ERA and LAC countries as a result of the increasingly complex web of relationships that has been weaved among scientists from the two regions. The ERA-LAC co-authorship increase for biodiversity and climate change was higher than those reported for other topics and for collaboration with other continents. We also found strong differences in international collaboration patterns within the LAC: co-publications were fewest from researchers in low- and lower-middle-income countries and most prevalent from researchers in emerging countries like Mexico and Brazil. Overall, interdisciplinary publications represented 25.8% of all publications at the interface of biodiversity and climate change in the ERA-LAC network. Further scientific collaborations should be promoted 1) to prevent less developed countries from being isolated from the global cooperation network, 2) to ensure that scientists from these countries are trained to lead visible and recognized biodiversity and climate change research, and 3) to develop common study models that better integrate multiple scientific disciplines and better support decision-making.
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UR 072, EGCE, UPR 9034, CNRS 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France and Université Paris-Sud 11, 91405, Orsay Cedex, France.|Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Av. 12 de Octubre y Roca, Quito, Ecuador.
Olivier
O
Dangles
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), 44 bld de Dunkerque, 13572, Marseille, France.
Jean
J
Loirat
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), 44 bld de Dunkerque, 13572, Marseille, France.
Claire
C
Freour
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), 44 bld de Dunkerque, 13572, Marseille, France.
Sandrine
S
Serre
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), UMR PALOC, MNHN, Paris, 75005, France.
Jean
J
Vacher
Microbial Ecology Centre, INRA (UMR 1418), CNRS (UMR 5557), Université de Lyon, Université Lyon1, 43 bd du 11 nov 1918, Villeurbanne, France.|BiodivERsA, Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB), 195 rue Saint Jacques, 75005, Paris, France.
Xavier
X
Le Roux
D044822:Biodiversity; D017691:Caribbean Region; D057231:Climate Change; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007843:Latin America; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data