2nd Baltic Earth Scientific Colloquium
Posted by Dr. Marcus Reckermann, International Baltic Earth Secretariat
Monday, 5 February 2024
15:00 Swedish/Polish/German time; 16:00 Finnish/Baltic States time
Philosophical views on Baltic Basin climate and environmental sciences
by Prof. emeritus Anders Omstedt, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
We have investigated the scientific practice during the BALTEX/Baltic Earth research period from 1993 to 2023. The study applies a philosophical view of complex systems, which promotes an increased understanding through idealizations without organizing science into hierarchies. Instead, the pluralistic science approach used by the BALTEX/Baltic Earth program has successfully generated new knowledge about how to deal with climate and environmental changes in the region. Some of the major improvements in science understanding are:
- Improved communication skills through developing conceptual views into drawings with large information contents
- Improved experience in increasing data and data products and realizing the need for well-documented, homogenized, and open data sets. Also, training in how to characterize and detect climate and environmental changes in the region.
- Indices and statistical models have played an important role in understanding complex dynamics. We have learned that they also need consideration of homogeneities and often have severe limitations.
- Several new maps on the region have, in an easy visual way, opened up the understanding of the need for multi-disciplinary research, from geographic to human information.
- Improved knowledge has been built due to intensive research on the atmosphere-ocean boundary layers.
- New knowledge has been achieved through water, heat, nutrients, and carbon budgets.
- Improved knowledge of mechanistic and system models regarding water, heat, nutrients, and carbon cycling.
- Maximum complex models have been strongly developed as the computer capacity has grown and shown important results when attributing the causes for climate change and scenarios of possible future developments.
- Experience from assessment has taught us about the strengths and problems when evaluating science. It also improved our knowledge about multiple-discipline research.
The colloquium will take place online in the webinar format and is open to anyone. It will last about 1h and a brief registration is compulsory.
