6.4 Connecting local and global scales
The research questions prompting the initiation of the Girnock study were place-based, pertaining to the monitoring of a single site, even if the site was considered more broadly indicative of spring salmon habitats. Nevertheless, the process-based understanding is transferable and this has informed international scientific studies, as well as management. Likewise, the organic evolution of the research agenda as largely been driven by emerging local questions arising from observational science that have led to a more interdisciplinary approach linking salmon research to the wider environmental sciences. In other salmon streams around the world, local insights in understanding the salmon life cycle and its environmental controls have resulted in comparable time series, though very few have such a wider understanding of the catchment context. Likewise, environmental observatories without a specific salmon focus have been seeking similar functional understanding of catchment hydrology and biogeochemistry that the Girnock/Bruntland studies have, though in-stream the ecological implications are generally less well-covered. Thus, the Girnock occupies a unique position in a number of monitoring sites such as Burrishoole in Ireland (McGinnity et al., 2004) and Catamaran Brook in Canada (Cunjak et al., 2013) that allow intercomparison studies to leverage broader relevance to generic environmental and ecosystem conservation concerns that are truly global.