Through SCOR Working Group 149 led by Philip Boyd (University of Tasmania), we have developed a free tool box for Multiple Drivers’ Marine Research. It includes a Best Practices Guide, an online and an online simulate experimental designs for ‘Multiple Stressors’ research, named MEDDLE.
Here a summary (based on a review by Bronwyn Wake, Nature Climate Change 9: 353):
*Â Â Â Â The Best Practice Guide :Â Â https://eprints.utas.edu.au/29392/Â Â Â aims to ensure robust experimental work that is comparable and reproducible, to generate meaningful results that can feed into the IPCC reports. It starts with a series of short introduction videos on multistressor work, complemented by themed videos with advice to enable the user to identify relevant stressors and design their experiment, and a hand book.
*Â Â Â Â The Decision Support Tool takes the user further into the planning process via a three-step iterative loop: to define the research question; identify the responses, stressors/drivers and design; and finalise the design. (Testimony from one of my PhD students who used this: “It took me a whole day to do this! But I am so glad I did it, it was a real eye opener to consider all aspects of my experiments, and I think it will save me a lot of time and money”.
*    In the MEDDLE simulation tool https://meddle-scor149.org/, the user takes further control – inputting the experiment design created in the Decision Support Tool, as well as moving sliders to manipulate variables, allowing interactions in different ways – and the tool suggests appropriate statistical tests.
We hope you will find it useful. Please pass this on to your students and anyone else who may be interested.
Cheers
Katharina Fabricius for the SCOR 149 Working Group