Biol. Lett. (2011) 7, 324–326 doi:10.1098/rsbl.2010.1120 Published online 5 January 2011 methods used environments. to study and manage these Community ecology Meeting report Frontiers of marine science Thomas J. Webb1 and Elvira S. Poloczanska2,* 1Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Shefﬁeld, Shefﬁeld S10 2TN, UK 2Climate Adaptation Flagship, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, EcoSciences Precinct, GPO Box 2583, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia *Author for correspondence (elvira.poloczanska@csiro.au). On 9 – 13 October 2010 early career scientists from the UK and Australia across marine research ﬁelds were given the opportunity to come together in Perth, Australia to discuss the frontiers of marine research and exchange ideas. Keywords: ecosystem model; climate; retrospective data; collaboration 1. INTRODUCTION Many of the challenges that face twenty-ﬁrst century scientists, such as climate change and ecosystem research, are inherently interdisciplinary in nature [1]. Perhaps nowhere is this better illustrated than in marine science, where the physics and chemistry of the medium are inextricably linked with the biology and ecology of ecosystems. Numerous feedback loops exist within and between biology and marine and atmospheric climate, which we are only beginning to understand, e.g. [2,3]. In addition, our marine environ- ment is under considerable stress, with every square kilometre of the global ocean affected by anthropogenic drivers of ecological change [4]. Climate change is fun- damentally altering marine systems, bringing challenges and costs for human societies and placing urgency on the science community to provide the information and understanding to drive policy and management responses [5]. Synergistic effects between climate and other anthropogenic stressors such as pollution and exploitation are likely to exacerbate climate change impacts in the oceans [6,7]. Marine systems also face the unique threat of ocean acidiﬁcation as atmospheric CO2 levels increase [8]. The UK – Australia Frontiers of Science conference was held in October 2010 in Perth, Western Australia, supported by the UK’s Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science. The meeting brought together 70 early career scientists (35 from each country) over 3 days to present the latest advances in their ﬁelds, learn about research at the cutting edge of other disciplines, and explore new opportunities for international and multidisciplinary collaboration. Australia and the UK have an extensive and interlinked history and both countries are considered maritime nations with their oceans contributing substantial social and economic wealth [9,10]. It is therefore appropriate that these two countries came together to consider the interconnectedness of the world’s marine ecosystems, and the interdependence of Received 25 November 2010 Accepted 8 December 2010 2. PATHWAYS TO UNDERSTANDING THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT Frontiers of Science meetings are structured around a series of discipline-themed sessions, with three presen- tations setting out the state of the art in a given subject, and a strong emphasis on discussion among the multi- disciplinary audience. Each member of the organizing committee proposed important topics relevant to their theme for wider consideration and one topic was then selected for each disciplinary session. Even at the planning stage of this meeting, however, the inherent interdisciplinarity of marine science was evident. For example, ocean acidiﬁcation was formally presented in the macrobiology session, but could equally have been placed in any of a number of different sessions, from climatology to chemistry to applied ecology. This problem-centred approach to science typically is indifferent to traditional disciplinary boundaries (ﬁgure 1), and in addition blurs the distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ research. As well as the interdisciplinary nature of topics such as ocean acidiﬁcation, ocean circulation and geo- engineering, a number of other common themes linked the diverse sessions in the meeting. In particular, the interdependence of physical, chemical and biologi- cal processes across spatial and temporal scales as well as the consequent complementarity of methodological approaches applied by researchers. (a) Space The title of the mathematics session, Small things matter, referred speciﬁcally to the role of eddy-scale turbulence within physical oceanography, and in par- ticular to the importance of considering such small- scale processes in regional and global climate models. But the same sentiment summed up the microbiology session on Symbioses, which highlighted the vital, and often poorly understood, role that microbes play in ocean ecosystems, in part through their intricate relationships with multicellular organisms. Likewise, the GEOTRACES programme (www.geotraces.org), introduced in the chemistry session, seeks to under- stand the distribution of minute concentrations of the trace metals which underpin global biogeochemical cycles. Of course, macro-scale processes also exert a powerful inﬂuence on local phenomena (e.g. low fre- quency climate signals) and studies at this scale provide unique but necessary understanding in the context of global change [11]. (b) Time The meeting involved delegates with primary interests in documenting the past, understanding the present and predicting the future of the marine environment. The interdependence of these three perspectives was abundantly clear. For instance, information from the past can be used to inform our predictions of the future and develop hypotheses for testing in models and experiments. Retrospective data, for example from sediments and coral cores, can provide evidence of past climate or ecosystem states. However, palaeo-ecologists also require information from 324 This journal is q 2011 The Royal Society