Ecologies of time: interdisciplinarity and temporal misalignments in data-mediated environmental research collaboration

Temporal misalignments pose significant challenges to interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and data scientists in environmental research projects. Even though data infrastructures are designed to act as boundary objects that facilitate smooth cooperation within the project, the expectation of computational research to have quasi-immediate access to data clashes with the seasonal rhythms and multi-year observation cycles central to ecological
research. These frictions cannot be resolved through technical solutions or data sharing alone. Instead, collaboration depends on temporal coordination across
divergent disciplinary tempos, rhythms, and practices, which can be achieved with temporal bridgers. However, today’s project-based research frameworks, organised around pre-fixed timelines and promised deliverables, leave little room
for such temporal realignments. Recognising the tacit power exercised by different forms of time in research and restructuring frameworks to accommodate heterogeneous temporalities – of both computational and ecological enquiry – is vital for meaningful interdisciplinary collaboration. Moreover, attending to these temporal negotiations raises wider questions about how contemporary regimes of time in
data-based research shape the production and value of different kinds of environmental knowledge.