Convergence between studies on ecosystem services and nuclear technology

Abstract

If in the 19th-century scientific knowledge moved from a generalist perspective to a growing specialization, in recent decades, problems that transcend disciplinary and political boundaries have required solutions based on interdisciplinary research and global actions, which led to the establishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015. In the same perspective, studies on ecosystem services emerged as an area of transdisciplinary knowledge in rapid growth, while advances in the nuclear field enabled applications in industry, health, agriculture and the environment. Considering the development of these two spheres of knowledge, the objective of this study is to evaluate the correlation between the areas of Ecosystem Services and Nuclear Science and Technology, through category building and content analysis applied to articles listed in the Web of Science. From 1980 to June 2019, 22,751 records (article and review) were listed for the term "ecosystem service*". When refining the result with the application of descriptors related to the nuclear area, correspondences were found for "Uranium"=13; "Nuclear Power"=6; "Nuclear Energy"=1; "Nuclear technolog*"=1; "Nuclear fuel*"=1; "Nuclear material*"=1, in a total of 23 correspondences only. On the other hand, the search using key descriptors of the nuclear area, plus the terms "nature" or "ecosystem*" or "environment" for the same period, totaled 9,328 papers (articles and reviews). While the NST is broadly convergent with SE, this correlation needs to be made more explicit in the studies, expanding the prospects for the conservation, preservation and recovery of the ecosystem services and their contribution to human wellbeing.