Learning from an Interdisciplinary Research Experience Exploring the Impacts of Global Changes on Quebec’s Northern Shrimp Fishery

Interdisciplinary research approaches are considered valuable in tackling complex challenges and developing richer understandings of how global changes will affect the future of social-ecological systems. Interdisciplinarity is increasingly used to bring together diverse forms of knowledge, take account of complexities, and identify pathways for adapting to global changes. Yet interdisciplinary research can be challenging for epistemological, methodological and operational reasons, and many researchers may lack guidance for developing effective processes, knowledge and skills. We share lessons from an interdisciplinary project conducted on the impacts of ocean changes on the Northern shrimp and its fishery in Quebec (Canada), from 2018 to 2021. These concern co-design, co-production of knowledge and co-dissemination of results by the research team. We present successes, shortcomings and suggestions focused on team building, network support and integration across disciplines in the context of research supporting fishery management, including marine biology, chemical oceanography, biogeography, genetics, sociology, and regional development.