Abstract
Ocean sustainability demands interdisciplinary knowledge. While interdisciplinary collaborations involving the natural sciences are common, few have also included the ocean humanities despite the entanglement of human culture and history with the ocean. We—a team of both ocean scientists and humanities researchers—outline a framework for integrating these disciplines. We show how this framework operates in practice by presenting a case study of the shifting baseline syndrome (SBS) in the intertidal of Monterey Bay, California, United States, as represented in historical ecological data and newspapers. We highlight such collaborations’ potential to transform our knowledge of and potential actions in the ocean.
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Data availability
Our survey of “Along the Waterfront” is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15054031.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, MAC3, and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability (Big Ideas for Oceans) and Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences (Humanities Seed Grant). The funder played no role in study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, or the writing of this manuscript. We wish to acknowledge Kelly Dunn’s assistance with Fig. 1; research and administrative support for the project from Dennis Browe, Maritza Colón, Donald Kohrs, and Amanda Whitmire; as well as conversations and feedback from participants in the “Waves of Convergence” conference at Hopkins Marine Station.
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This article was conceptualized by A.S., M.S., S.P., F.M., and M.C., as part of a project supervised by M.C. and supported by F.M. M.C. and F.M. procured funding for the project. A.S. directed the case studies, supported by M.S., F.B., and R.M. on data curation and analysis, with supervision from M.C. and guidance from F.M. and S.P. A.S. led the writing of the manuscript, and all authors contributed to revisions. M.S. led the development of Figs. 1 and 2. M.C. and F.M., with support from all authors, organized a conference at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California on February 6–7, 2025, where all authors shared work adjacent to the article.
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Sherman, A., Shea, M.M., Barrie, F.B. et al. A framework for co-creating knowledge across the ocean humanities and sciences. npj Ocean Sustain (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-026-00186-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-026-00186-1
