Editorial: Women in population, community and ecosystem dynamics 2023

Editorial on the Research Topic
Women in population, community and ecosystem dynamics 2023

While many leading organizations have made strides in increasing the representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research careers, there is still much ground to cover (Noonan, 2017; European Commission, 2022). In many instances, the number of women pursuing associate and bachelor degrees in STEM fields is on par with men, but the gap widens significantly when it comes to advanced degrees, especially doctoral degrees (e.g., NCSES, 2023). In fact, less than 30% of worldwide researchers are women (UIS, 2020). This underlines the importance of our collective commitment to fostering a diverse STEM research community. Augmenting representation in STEM research will produce more innovative solutions, foster a more inclusive scientific community, and ensure sustainable development, as highlighted by UNESCO.

Population, community, and ecosystem dynamics research, with its broad and diverse range of questions, represents a fertile opportunity to foster diverse participation in scientific inquiry. Research in this field can take many approaches, ranging from fieldwork to computational modeling, and studies can describe patterns, test explicit hypotheses about ecological processes, or assess the predictive power of broad theories.

This Research Topic gathers a selection of four original articles whose authors identified as women, covering diverse aspects of population, community, and ecosystem dynamics research. For instance, Kammann et al. describe the successional development of dune biocrust communities on the coast of the Baltic Sea, while Schneider et al. use a long-term data set on water temperature and reproductive activity of blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Chesapeake Bay area to examine how climate change may impact blue crab populations. Studies as different as these emphasize the importance of diverse representation in ecological research.

Populations, communities, and ecosystems are ecological units with increasing complexity and scale, yet each of these ecological levels is linked by the interactions between biotic and abiotic forces and their susceptibility to natural and anthropogenic change. Thus, studying the potential drivers of human activity and its impacts on populations, communities, and ecosystems is paramount to advancing this field. This includes studies that range from identifying the prevalence and hotspots of rodenticide exposure in fishers (Pekania pennanti), presented by Silveira et al., to an attempt to understand the social norms that drive pro-environmental intentions shown by (Kotyza et al.). Thus, research in this field benefits from scientists with numerous and varied perspectives and makes its greatest advances with a more diverse workforce.

To truly appreciate the diversity of work done by women in STEM, this Research Topic presents recent advances in Population, Community, and Ecosystem Dynamics conducted by researchers who identify as women. The four research articles included in this Research Topic are not just a glimpse, but a substantial addition to the field, showcasing the breadth and depth of what women in STEM can achieve.

The guest editorial team hopes that this compilation of papers will encourage future collaborations with more female researchers in STEM fields.

Author contributions

LB: Writing – original draft. OA: Writing – review & editing. YJ: Writing – review & editing.

Funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. OA is funded by national funds through the FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the project 2022.08112.CEECIND. Thanks are due to FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

The handling editor DM declared a past co-authorship with the author LB.

The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Publisher’s note

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References

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (2022). Bridging the gender gap in STEM – Strengthening opportunities for women in research and innovation (Publications Office of the European Union). doi: 10.2777/774922

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National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) (2023). Diversity and STEM: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 2023 (Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation). Available at: https://ncses.nsf.gov/wmpd. Special Report NSF 23-315.

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Noonan R. (2017). Women in STEM: 2017 Update. ESA Issue Brief# 06–17 (Office of the Chief Economist, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce). Available at: https://www.esa.gov/reports/women-stem-2017-update.

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UIS - UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2020). Women in science [fact sheet n°60] (Montreal, QC, Canada: UIS Publ.). Available at: http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/fs60-women-in-science-2020-en.pdf. UIS/FS/2020/SCI/60.

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