Fostering advances in interdisciplinary climate science

Abstract

Climate science is a vast, multidisciplinary research field with foundations spanning physics, chemistry, biology, geology, mathematics, and more. Cutting-edge climate research often straddles one or more basic disciplines, each of which has its own methods, terminology, and research culture. Indeed, many big opportunities and compelling scientific questions are intrinsically interdisciplinary, but disciplinary differences can sometimes impede integrated interdisciplinary research efforts and even pose barriers to scientific progress. A challenge for many interdisciplinary researchers is to develop avenues for communication with multiple partners and audiences, each of whom may have different perspectives on how research is to be conducted, different language for discussing science, and even distinct outlets for publication and sources for funding.