ABOVE: Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia
© ISTOCK.COM, YANJF
Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines are home to the lion’s share of coral reefs, but most studies on these ecosystems are done by researchers based in the US, Australia, and the UK. This mismatch points to parachute science, whereby scientists from high income nations conduct fieldwork in another, often low-income country without engaging local researchers, says Paris Stefanoudis, a marine biologist at the University of Oxford and the Nekton Foundation in Oxford, UK. “It’s about not creating space for host country scientists to participate and actively get involved,” adds Sheena Talma, a marine biologist at the Nekton Foundation.
To understand the extent of parachute science in coral reef biodiversity research, Stefanoudis, Talma, and their colleagues compared countries’ research output with the amount of coral reef habitat in those countries. The findings, published this week (February 22) in ...
