Geophysics union entices biologists with new section

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is setting up a new section for the biological sciences. The intention is to create a clearer focus and structure for incorporating biology into geophysical research and to attract biologists to the AGU.

Called 'Biogeochemistry, Biogeophysics and Planetary Ecosystems', the section is expected to advance research — particularly in global biogeochemical cycles and astrobiology — through scientific presentation posters, lecture meetings and publications.

It was approved by the AGU council during the union's annual autumn meeting last week in San Francisco. The meeting, attended by more than 7,500 scientists, included a biogeoscience programme that attracted more than 300 paper submissions. The council's required second vote is planned for the spring meeting in Washington DC.

A 13-member committee chaired by Diane McKnight of the University of Colorado had recommended creating the section. The panel said that improved coordination and articulation of the biological sciences "will foster a critical mass of researchers who will contribute the integrative links to advance our understanding of the Earth and planets".

The new section has been enthusiastically endorsed by AGU president John Knauss, a retired marine scientist associated with the University of Rhode Island and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, and president elect Marcia McNutt, a marine geophysicist who directs the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. "We must ensure that we are able to evolve as a society," said McNutt. "The science is changing. Biogeoscience is an example."

Not everyone was in favour. Committee member Dork Sahagian, an Earth scientist at the University of New Hampshire, says that initially he was "dead set" against a new section, fearing it would "sequester" biological research. But he was soon persuaded it would integrate the disciplines. He then helped form, and presided over, a biogeoscience session on wetlands at last week's meeting.

Knauss says AGU officials have decided to "go back to the drawing boards" on a broader plan for reorganizing the existing ten sections. Robert Detrick, chairman of geology and geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, said the earlier plan was a complex formula to alter the scientific makeup of sections. He and others felt it was not sensitive enough to the needs of specific scientific disciplines.

"We need a mechanism to evolve over time," says Detrick, adding that more study is needed. A committee is being formed to work out an alternative plan.