Before considering the actual state of multidisciplinary efforts in the field of marine science today, it is worth contemplating the reasons why multidisciplinary interaction is so important to oceanography and related fields of marine research. It is customary to offer multidisciplinary cross-fertilization and cooperation as a panacea for stagnated productivity and performance in U.S. research and development efforts. However, the rationale for such interaction should be more extensive in marine science: in many ways is part of the history of the field.

Olson, D.B. 1988. Multidisciplinary issues in marine science. Oceanography 1(2):42–43, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.1988.10.

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