When disasters strike environmental science: a case–control study of changes in scientific collaboration networks

Studies of scientific collaboration networks reveal the social structure of scientific disciplines. Most of these studies assume scientists work under conditions of institutional stability. What happens to science when disaster strikes and research practice is disrupted? This study examines structural changes in a scientific collaboration network after serial exposure to major disasters. We analyze the collaboration network of wetlands scientists publishing research related to the marshes of the Louisiana Gulf Coast between 1996 and 2015, along with a control network from a wetlands setting in a different geographic area that did not experience any disasters over the same time span. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (2010) offer the opportunity to compare the Gulf wetlands collaboration network before and after the disasters. Results indicate changes in size, research activity, and connectivity in periods following the major hurricanes and oil spill.