The BRIDGES section of Freshwater Science is an outlet for articles that bridge aquatic sciences with other science disciplines, public communication, and public policy. Conceived in 1994, BRIDGES was tasked to link basic and applied aquatic science issues. Times have changed with the journal evolving from 0% to 25% of the content devoted to applied science. In 2009, BRIDGES was reinvented to include a new format, more interdisciplinary topics, and open access dissemination.

BRIDGES is now focused on complex, interdisciplinary topics that integrate aquatic ecology to other disciplines, science policy, or communication. Each BRIDGES cluster has a unifying theme and features 2-4 short (<3000 words) articles highlighting complementary or contrasting viewpoints on the subject. To date, two Bridges clusters have been published addressing ecological thresholds (JNABS 29(3):988-1023) and marine, estuarine, and freshwater linkages (JNABS 30(3): 751-786).

The new BRIDGES format is designed to encourage a broad readership. All BRIDGES articles are open access to encourage a diverse readership. BRIDGES authors pay page charges and FWS covers the costs for open access. Additionally, fact sheets are created to highlight the main points of each BRIDGES cluster using non-technical language for the wider BRIDGES audience.

For more information or to propose a BRIDGES theme, contact BRIDGES Editors Ashley Moerke (amoerke@lssu.edu) and Allison Roy (aroy@eco.umass.edu).