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Chapter 9. Biology and Water Science
William M. Lewis, Jr.
Introduction
Linnaeus (1707-1778), inventor of the system of binomial nomenclature for organisms, probably would have approved of the way in which CIRES was named. There are five words in the name, but that would not have deterred Linnaeus or his successors from latinizing it as a binomial (e.g., black-bellied dew lover: Drosophila melanogaster, the most famous of fruit flies). The designation "Cooperative Institute for Research" accurately places CIRES generically as one of a diverse group of scientific organizations that foster research through some kind of inter-institutional collaboration, in this case among several academic departments of the University of Colorado and, as the essential feature, between the University and a number of the research laboratories of NOAA. The designation "Environmental Sciences" is more specific; it assigns CIRES a niche that is broad but has definite boundaries.
The environmental sciences do not comprise a discipline, but rather a cluster of disciplines that lend themselves to interdisciplinary cooperation, which is the main rationale for the University's commitment to CIRES. CIRES, unlike a department, is not obliged to serve any particular discipline, and thus is freer to promote interdisciplinary work than a department would be. The environmental sciences do, however, have some internal structure. One way of illustrating this structure, and of relating it to CIRES, is through a matrix that places the traditional disciplines on one axis of a grid and the three environmental media (earth, air, and water) on the other axis. The scientists found at different intersections in the matrix differ from one another in the way that they are trained, even though scientists at different intersections may share interests in certain classes of problems.
The matrix in Figure 1 is filled in with circles, the areas of which indicate the distribution of CIRES fellows within the environmental sciences as of year 2000. A matrix also could be prepared from a list of all scientists in CIRES rather than from a list of CIRES fellows, but it would look qualitatively similar to the one shown in Figure 1.
 Fig. 1. A matrix representing subject matter of the environmental sciences in terms of the major traditional disciplines (rows) and the three environmental media (columns). The area of the circle at each intersection of columns and rows indicates the proportionate representation among the CIRES fellows as of year 2000. Fellows showing dispersion of expertise across one axis or another are represented in terms of fractional allocation of effort. |
The rows of Figure 1 show that CIRES is, across disciplines, most strongly committed to physics, as might be expected from the origin and development of the Institute. Chemistry also is strongly represented, but is very much secondary to physics in terms of representation among the fellows. Biology is tertiary and social science, the most recent addition, is a distant last place (one position).
The distribution of fellows across disciplines would have been considerably different prior to 1990. At that time, biology would have appeared in Figure 1 much in the way that social science does now, and social science would not have appeared at all, as a result of decisions discussed in chapter one. The balance between physics and chemistry probably would have been much as it is today, however.
With respect to columns in Figure 1, which represent the three environmental media, the atmospheric realm is by far most strongly represented. Studies of the solid earth are also very strongly represented, mostly because of the strength of geophysics, reflecting the origins of CIRES. The development of CIRES along lines of greatest interest to NOAA explains the strength of commitment to atmospheric studies, which have always been approximately equal to studies of the solid earth in terms of the number of fellows, but which became dominant in terms of total activity (chapter seven) as the number of research associates grew.
The combination of rows and columns produces an interesting mix of strengths across the possible combinations of disciplines and environmental media. For example, the strength of atmospheric studies does not extend to biology and social sciences. Weakness of commitment to atmospheric biology is reflective, however, of the tendency of biologically-oriented subjects to be identified with aquatic and terrestrial media rather than the atmosphere, although trace gas work such as that pursued by CIRES fellow Ray Fall can be classified largely as biology. Aquatic studies are poorly represented across the board. Perception of this weakness by the CIRES fellows and administration was the general rationale for a major new commitment to studies involving the water cycle, as explained below. Studies of the solid Earth are strongly dominated by physics, but also there is significant component of biology, as explained below. Chemistry of the solid Earth, as might be pursued by a chemically-oriented soil scientist or any of a number of types of geochemists is, however, almost absent from CIRES. CIRES does benefit, however, from the contributions of Lang Farmer, a well known isotope geochemist (see chapter five).
The foregoing commentary on strengths and weaknesses of commitments to various intersections in the matrix of Figure 1 cannot be taken as a criticism of the present status or development of CIRES. It is not essential that an institute with such broad scope as CIRES commit its resources uniformly to all subjects that fall under the umbrella of its name. Nevertheless, an explicit depiction of the distribution of effort is cause for reflection. Uneven distribution of commitments to specific kinds of subjects are partly historical, but nevertheless require a good supporting rationale if they are to remain as characteristics of the Institute. The purpose of this chapter is to review and, to the extent possible, explain how biology, which is a row in the matrix of Figure 1, and aquatic science, which is a column in the same figure, have developed within CIRES.
