About this Research Topic
The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together experts from a wide diversity of disciplines within the sciences and humanities to address several questions:
-What are the costs and benefits of scientific research approaches based on extended human presence within the ocean? What can we learn only, or best, by “seeing it for ourselves”?
-What are the most effective ways of inclusively sharing those experiences with non-scientists who may never visit the seafloor, and can and do these approaches promote ocean stewardship?
-What are the technological, societal, and cognitive barriers that currently limit human exploration and the full potential of humanity’s presence in the ocean?
This Research Topic invites research articles, syntheses, reviews, and (if well-justified) opinion pieces on any topical area related to humanity’s presence in the ocean, including but not limited to scuba and technical diving, saturation diving, crewed submersibles, human-robot interactions; telepresence using robots, virtual reality simulations and digital twins, serious games, and ocean storytelling. Please note that we are not accepting articles that primarily rely on surface (ship-based or remote) technologies. Specifically, we are interested in research that explicitly includes a human element and especially approaches that consider the ocean as a socio-ecological system. We are also interested in articles that explore analogies between ocean and space exploration, and papers that examine diverse, multicultural perspectives of the undersea environment.
Keywords: Underwater Exploration; Human Presence; Perception; Engagement; Futures; Social-Ecological Systems; Diving
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.