The Inquiry Cycle and Applied Inquiry Cycle: Integrated Frameworks for Field Studies in the Environmental Sciences

FEINSINGER, P.; VENTOSA RODRIGUEZ, I.; A. E. IZQUIERDO; BUZATO, S.

BIOSCIENCE

AMER INST BIOLOGICAL SCI

Año: 2020

0006-3568

Empirical place-based studies remain the research mode of most environmental field scientists. For their own sake and that of synthetic studies based on them, such studies should follow rigorous, integrated frameworks for formulating, designing, executing, analyzing, and interpreting investigations. The Inquiry Cycle (IC) and Applied Inquiry Cycle (ApIC) provide such frameworks: research questions complying with strict guidelines, research design following 17 detailed steps, and an ordered sequence of critical reflections on data that begins with possible causes of their general tendencies and the exceptions (outliers) and later propose possibilities involving broad spatiotemporal scales. The ApIC evaluates alternative place-based management guidelines. Here, reflection on results can lead to implementing the most promising alternative examined, monitoring the consequences, and later engaging in adaptive management. To our knowledge the IC and AIC represent novel approaches that provide field researchers anywhere with tools to carry out the best, or least flawed, field investigations possible.