Academician Wu Lixin et al. : Development status, key fields, overall ideas and funding layout of Marine science in China

2023-06-26 13:48:22

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The following article is from Science and Humanities Online, by Wu Lixin et al

The ocean is the cradle of life, the treasure house of resources and the barrier of national security, and an important strategic space for the sustainable development of mankind in the future. According to the inherent law of Marine science development, aiming at the current world science and technology frontier and the major strategic needs of building a Marine power country, the development direction and key areas of Marine science in China before 2035 are prospected, which indicates the direction for the future development of Marine science in China.

In the 21st century, international Marine scientific research has entered a new stage, which is mainly reflected in two development directions and three development trends.

The two directions of development are:

The research object of Marine science has expanded from the nearshore and offshore areas around the land to the whole sea area including the deep ocean and the polar areas.

Research methods have also expanded from local, intermittent investigations to large-scale, all-weather continuous observations.

Accordingly, the three major trends in Marine science are reflected in:

From "fighting alone" of each single discipline to emphasizing multi-disciplinary and cross-scale systematic research;

From "science is limited by technology, technology only serves science" to science and technology close cooperation, collaborative development;

From the specialization of scientific research platform and the islanding of scientific research data to the public platform and data networking.

Marine science is entering a transition period as a whole, and the discipline has gradually risen to a new level of systematic science with integration and mechanism exploration. Deepening and expanding offshore research and management, focusing on the new frontiers of deep sea and polar regions, and carrying out multi-layer and multi-scale coupling research have become new trends in Marine research around the world.

1. The current status of Marine science in China

Marine science has the distinctive characteristics of big science. The complexity of Marine problems makes it impossible to solve them through the study of a single discipline, but it needs the deep cross and integration of multi-disciplinary fields. In the past ten years, with the improvement of comprehensive national strength, the increase of scientific and technological funding, the improvement of scientific research conditions and the strengthening of foreign cooperation and exchanges, China's Marine science has shown a strong momentum of development. The number of scientific research achievements in China's Marine field is growing rapidly and its influence is steadily increasing. In 2019, the number of Marine scientific papers published in China has ranked first in the world, and the frequency of citations of each article is the third in the world, which effectively reflects the role of national scientific and technological research and development investment in scientific research. The research field has expanded from the offshore waters of China to the deep ocean and polar seas, and the research problem is gradually transiting from a scientific problem of a single discipline to a multidisciplinary problem. A series of important research results have been achieved in various disciplines in the Marine field:

①Physical oceanography, mainly reflected in the ocean circulation theory, small and medium scale ocean dynamic processes, ocean energy transfer and its climate effects, ocean climate variability and climate change;

②Marine chemistry, mainly reflected in the coastal biogenic factor cycle process, nutrient salt sedimentation process, Marine biogenic active gas, biological markers and tracer applications in particulate matter, ocean acidification and ocean hypoxia;

③The major of Marine biology is mainly reflected in the mechanism of biological pump and micro-biological carbon pump, life in extreme Marine environment, deep-sea ecosystem, ecosystem and global change, biodiversity and life evolution, Marine fishery resources, etc.

④Marine geology and geophysics, mainly embodied in the South China Sea tectonic and paleogeographic evolution history, the low latitude driving hypothesis of climate change, the Asian continental margin "source-sink" process;

⑤Polar Marine science, mainly reflected in the Antarctic ice sheet glacier dynamics, polar glacier and ocean interaction, polar ocean and global change;

⑥Ocean observation and exploration technology is mainly embodied in the network of Marine environment monitoring satellite system, submarine observation network system, deep-sea manned and unmanned submersible.

However, it should also be clearly recognized that there is still a certain gap in the current research level of China's Marine field compared with other Marine science and technology powers.

In the aspect of basic research, it lacks the substantial contribution to the foundational theory, and has not yet formed the trend of leading the frontier development of the discipline on the whole. Scientific research funding is not sustained, and the development of ocean models, the construction of observation systems, and disaster monitoring and early warning are still restricted by technical bottlenecks. In terms of scientific research team, there is a lack of interdisciplinary comprehensive Marine research personnel; In addition, the lack of international big science plans and big science projects initiated or led by China, the international discourse power is obviously insufficient.

In the future, the continued development of Marine science in China needs to pay attention to superior disciplines, strengthen weak links, promote the innovation and development of interdisciplinary disciplines, lead the progress of technology with science, promote the development of science with technology, and strive to overcome a series of major scientific problems and technical bottlenecks with far-reaching practical significance and theoretical value.

2.The key scientific areas to promote the development of Marine science in our country

At present, the key scientific fields that promote the development of Marine science in China are mainly reflected in four aspects.

①Oceans and Earth habitability: With the increase of emissions of greenhouse gases, microplastics and other pollutants, the earth's environment and ecosystem are rapidly degrading under the influence of human activities, and the Earth's habitability is facing unprecedented threats; Because of its huge thermal inertia, the ocean stores more than 90% of the heat surplus in the entire climate system, absorbs nearly 30% of the CO2 emissions from human activities since the industrial revolution, and is a large active carbon pool in the earth system, which is an important guarantee to support the habitability of the earth.

②The ocean and the Origin of life: Preservation in the ocean

A complete system of biological phyla, rich and diverse life forms exist in special habitats such as deep sea, hydrothermal, and intertidal zone, hiding the code of origin and evolution of life; Many important events in the evolutionary history of life have occurred in the ocean, and decoding blue life is a crucial link to unlock the mystery of life on Earth.

③Marine sustainable output: The exploration and development of energy resources in the world has entered the Marine era, and the future energy resources will mainly come from the deep sea; Blue life is the quintessence of "blue land", which contains immeasurable potential for scientific, economic and strategic development. The coastal zone is an important place for human life. It is the lifeblood of China's Belt and Road Initiative, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

④Marine intelligent perception and prediction: The perception and acquisition of Marine information is the basis of human understanding and management of the ocean. How to break through the bottleneck of key technologies of ocean exploration and develop high-tech Marine equipment and platforms is the top priority of promoting the development of Marine science and building a Marine power strategy.

3.The general idea of Marine science development in China

The general idea of Marine science development in China before 2035 should focus on the following four points.

①Facing the world's scientific and technological frontiers, we will solve major basic scientific problems. The development of Marine science should be oriented towards core scientific issues such as climate change, the origin of life, and the law of deep earth operation, focusing on ocean energy transfer and material cycle, trans-spheric fluid-structure coupling and plate movement, Marine life processes and their adaptation and evolution mechanisms, the mechanism, impact and predictability of rapid changes in polar systems, and sustainable development of healthy oceans and coastal zones. We will strengthen top-level design and strategic layout, launch a number of major research programs and projects, and carry out collaborative research on major basic theories.

②To serve the strategic needs of the country and protect the rights and interests of the state and the lives and health of the people. In the future, important breakthroughs should be made in the key scientific and technological fields of the development and utilization of Marine resources and energy, so as to provide a material basis for the sustainable development of human society. Enhance the ability of Marine and polar environmental forecasting and early warning, and provide environmental information guarantee for maritime and ice Silk Road navigation and engineering activities; To reveal the evolution trend of Marine ecosystems and the occurrence mechanism of ecological disasters, clarify the coupled operation trend of eco-resource-environment-socio-economic in coastal zones, and provide scientific guidance for the realization of healthy oceans; The sustainable development of Marine living resources provides important scientific and technological support for food security and people's life and health.

③We will build large science facilities and set up large science projects to enhance our ability to perceive and forecast the ocean intelligently. We will strive to promote the transformation of Marine science and technology into an innovation-led model, break through the "bottleneck" technology, establish a new generation of independent and controllable high-tech systems, lay out a multi-element intelligent three-dimensional observation network based on the Internet of Things technology of space-air-air-sea-deep-sea and seabed, and build major scientific installations such as ocean drilling ships and deep-sea space stations. A multi-layer coupled high-resolution ocean observation and simulation prediction system based on artificial intelligence and big data will be built to support multidisciplinary cross-scale and cross-layer research in global sea areas, enhance Marine intelligent perception and prediction capabilities, ensure the safety of Marine activities and engineering, and assess the future habitability of the Earth.

④To lead the international big science program and lead the development of international Marine science. The complexity, economic cost and implementation difficulty of Marine science are often beyond the power of a single country, which requires pooling of global resources and intelligence to achieve breakthroughs. In the future, we should focus on national strategic needs and scientific frontiers, focus on key sea areas such as "two oceans, one sea" and the polar regions, concentrate on major scientific issues, and accelerate the launch of international scientific programs led by China. By gathering global superior scientific and technological resources, making overall arrangements and collaborating on key problems, China will significantly enhance its international influence in the field of Marine science and research, and lead the innovation and progress of Marine science and technology in the world.

We should seize the golden opportunity of the current "United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development" (2021-2030), aim at the major scientific frontiers in the field of international Marine research, combine the current status and development trend of Marine scientific research in China, and focus on ocean energy transfer and material circulation, cross-layer fluid-structure coupling and plate motion. Disruptive innovation has been made in six important research directions: Marine life process and its adaptive evolution mechanism; mechanism, impact and predictability of rapid changes in polar systems; sustainable development of healthy oceans and coastal zones; and Marine intelligent sensing and prediction systems. By 2035, China's Marine science will strive to establish a multi-layer coupling theoretical system of the earth system linked by the ocean, a high-precision and intelligent global three-dimensional comprehensive observation-detecting - simulation-prediction system, and achieve a series of major breakthroughs from 0 to 1 in the fields of deep-sea Earth system and related life sciences, seizing the commanding heights of international Marine research. To realize the historical leap of China's Marine research from following and running to leading, to provide important scientific support for responding to global climate change, ensuring healthy oceans, efficiently developing and utilizing Marine resources, and effectively opening up new space for far-reaching Marine and polar strategies, and to serve the major needs of the world and China in terms of climate, environment, and resources. To contribute to the goal of "carbon peak" by 2030 and "carbon neutral" by 2060, and to enhance China's voice in global affairs such as ocean management and geoengineering.

4.The main problems of funding distribution of Marine scientific research in China

Through comparative analysis of the current situation of Marine science research funding at home and abroad, it is found that the following problems exist in the distribution of Marine science research funding in China:

①The implementation policies needed to lead international big science initiatives are unclear;

②The funding layout and evaluation mechanism of major leading scientific research are not perfect;

③The comprehensive investment and management of major Marine equipment and facilities are relatively lacking;

④The funding policy of interdisciplinary integration of scientific and technological innovation is relatively lacking;

⑤The funding policy required for the coordinated development of Marine science and technology is not sound;

⑥Resource and data sharing degree is not high;

⑦Insufficient driving force of evaluation and incentive mechanism;

⑧The total investment in Marine science and technology is insufficient and the distribution is unbalanced;

⑨The use of funds for Marine science and technology is not efficient.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it is suggested that the field of Marine science should be further optimized from the aspects of institutional and mechanism innovation, resource allocation mode and organizational management mode:

①Strengthen top-level design and carry out collaborative research: Marine science has a long chain of disciplines, large investment, high risk and long cycle. It is suggested to improve top-level design and scientific planning, adhere to land-sea overall planning, and achieve synergy between offshore, far-reaching sea-polar, science-technology-industry, independent innovation and international cooperation.

②Launch major projects to build a "national heavyweight" : To meet the frontier of Marine science and technology and the major strategic needs of the country's oceans, China will launch a number of major Marine science and technology projects such as the Marine Internet of Things and Marine three-dimensional high-resolution satellites as soon as possible, strengthen international cooperation on climate change and biodiversity, and accelerate the construction of a number of "national instruments" in the Marine field, such as ocean drilling ships, a new generation of supercomputers, and deep-sea space stations.

③Innovate the organizational model of scientific research and improve the institutional guarantee: Establish a science and technology organization model that is "driven by top-level goals, driven by major tasks, and supported by basic capabilities", take major projects as the starting point, promote collaborative innovation among universities, research institutes, departments, industries, and the military, as well as cross-research in the fields of ocean and energy, materials, information, aerospace, and manufacturing, and cultivate a group of people with a global vision, international competitiveness, and multidisciplinary background. At the same time, it also has new talents with theoretical, simulation and observation capabilities, accelerates the construction of Marine national laboratories, and lays out a number of State key laboratories and cross-collaborative innovation centers around emerging Marine fields such as Marine big data, artificial intelligence, sensors, and underwater robots.

This article is excerpted from the 2035 Development Strategy for Marine Science in China.

Information source: Science Press.

Academician Wu Lixin et al. : Development status, key fields, overall ideas and funding layout of Marine science in China

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