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Paper short abstract

This research investigates how biodiversity is inscribed through technology development and knowledge production for governance processes. By unpacking how biodiversity is valued, constructed and operationalised, this research aims to unpack what future biodiversities are being enacted or excluded.

Paper long abstract

In recent years, the marine space has experienced increasing human activities, such as offshore wind energy, to tackle global biodiversity and climate issues. This has resulted in the marine space becoming more ‘informationalised’ through the growing interest in data and technology use. This research engages the design and application of environmental DNA (eDNA) technologies to monitor marine biodiversity surrounding offshore wind energy parks. eDNA is an emerging technology seen to be ‘revolutionary’ for solving biodiversity data gaps and challenges, promising to be the solution for governance challenges. However, data is not a neutral artifact, it is inscribed with the ‘social’ assumptions, priorities and ways of knowing biodiversity as well as the ‘material’ affordances of eDNA. Furthermore, eDNA and its data has been gaining popularity as an innovative technology for monitoring and generating knowledge for decision-making, perpetuating values and ways of knowing biodiversity embodied by a few actors that are able to translate and access the data. This research therefore aims to explore the social-political implications of using technologies for marine biodiversity governance surrounding offshore marine infrastructures. Using a mix of review and case study methodologies, this research investigates who determines what marine biodiversity is and how it is valued, constructed and operationalised in current technology development and knowledge production for governance processes. In doing so, this research aims to identify how biodiversity is inscribed in the translation of data technologies for marine governance decision-making, and thereby what future biodiversities are being enacted or excluded in the process.