Mobilizing tensions for action: How to reconfigure knowledge infrastructures of data-centric ecology in a time of crises

Biologists collect data about biodiversity, and like in other fields, data has become increasingly important. How does this attention to data change what we know about biodiversity and how does it make ecological science better? A lot of research in both ecology and social science questions whether new data collection and analysis techniques help to fight biodiversity loss. There are also signs that such techniques create tensions, and lead to outcomes that may be unfair and less effective in practice. This PhD dissertation focuses on the work of ecologists studying the rapid disappearance of the Dutch national bird, the black-tailed godwit, and of its traditional Frisian meadow habitat. Through a combination of ethnographic fieldwork and historical analysis, the current state of data-centric ecology is investigated. It analyses the tensions in how this group plan, do, and share research, in order to help improve research practices and outcomes. It invites ecologists to move beyond the role of detached observer, distant from both object of study and from solutions for biodiversity loss. This means the work calls on ecologists to actively participate in building multispecies liveable futures, not only by diagnosing biodiversity loss, but also by changing their research practices to have fair and effective outcomes. For this, the dissertation emphasizes the importance of mobilizing the tensions experienced in research practices, together with other knowledge actors, rather than rejecting, ridiculing, or imposing solutions to such tensions, as the traditional role of the scientist gives ecologists the authority to do.