Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions
Abstract Ocean acidification has been identified as a risk to marine ecosystems, and substantial scientific effort has been expended on investigating its effects, mostly in laboratory manipulation experiments. However, performing these manipulations correctly can be logistically difficult, and corre...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/73/3/572/31229614/fsv118.pdf |
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croxfordunivpr:10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 2024-06-23T07:55:47+00:00 Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions Cornwall, Christopher E. Hurd, Catriona L. 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/73/3/572/31229614/fsv118.pdf en eng Oxford University Press (OUP) ICES Journal of Marine Science volume 73, issue 3, page 572-581 ISSN 1095-9289 1054-3139 journal-article 2015 croxfordunivpr https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 2024-06-04T06:11:22Z Abstract Ocean acidification has been identified as a risk to marine ecosystems, and substantial scientific effort has been expended on investigating its effects, mostly in laboratory manipulation experiments. However, performing these manipulations correctly can be logistically difficult, and correctly designing experiments is complex, in part because of the rigorous requirements for manipulating and monitoring seawater carbonate chemistry. To assess the use of appropriate experimental design in ocean acidification research, 465 studies published between 1993 and 2014 were surveyed, focusing on the methods used to replicate experimental units. The proportion of studies that had interdependent or non-randomly interspersed treatment replicates, or did not report sufficient methodological details was 95%. Furthermore, 21% of studies did not provide any details of experimental design, 17% of studies otherwise segregated all the replicates for one treatment in one space, 15% of studies replicated CO2 treatments in a way that made replicates more interdependent within treatments than between treatments, and 13% of studies did not report if replicates of all treatments were randomly interspersed. As a consequence, the number of experimental units used per treatment in studies was low (mean = 2.0). In a comparable analysis, there was a significant decrease in the number of published studies that employed inappropriate chemical methods of manipulating seawater (i.e. acid–base only additions) from 21 to 3%, following the release of the “Guide to best practices for ocean acidification research and data reporting” in 2010; however, no such increase in the use of appropriate replication and experimental design was observed after 2010. We provide guidelines on how to design ocean acidification laboratory experiments that incorporate the rigorous requirements for monitoring and measuring carbonate chemistry with a level of replication that increases the chances of accurate detection of biological responses to ocean ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Ocean acidification Oxford University Press ICES Journal of Marine Science 73 3 572 581 |
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description |
Abstract Ocean acidification has been identified as a risk to marine ecosystems, and substantial scientific effort has been expended on investigating its effects, mostly in laboratory manipulation experiments. However, performing these manipulations correctly can be logistically difficult, and correctly designing experiments is complex, in part because of the rigorous requirements for manipulating and monitoring seawater carbonate chemistry. To assess the use of appropriate experimental design in ocean acidification research, 465 studies published between 1993 and 2014 were surveyed, focusing on the methods used to replicate experimental units. The proportion of studies that had interdependent or non-randomly interspersed treatment replicates, or did not report sufficient methodological details was 95%. Furthermore, 21% of studies did not provide any details of experimental design, 17% of studies otherwise segregated all the replicates for one treatment in one space, 15% of studies replicated CO2 treatments in a way that made replicates more interdependent within treatments than between treatments, and 13% of studies did not report if replicates of all treatments were randomly interspersed. As a consequence, the number of experimental units used per treatment in studies was low (mean = 2.0). In a comparable analysis, there was a significant decrease in the number of published studies that employed inappropriate chemical methods of manipulating seawater (i.e. acid–base only additions) from 21 to 3%, following the release of the “Guide to best practices for ocean acidification research and data reporting” in 2010; however, no such increase in the use of appropriate replication and experimental design was observed after 2010. We provide guidelines on how to design ocean acidification laboratory experiments that incorporate the rigorous requirements for monitoring and measuring carbonate chemistry with a level of replication that increases the chances of accurate detection of biological responses to ocean ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Cornwall, Christopher E. Hurd, Catriona L. |
spellingShingle |
Cornwall, Christopher E. Hurd, Catriona L. Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
author_facet |
Cornwall, Christopher E. Hurd, Catriona L. |
author_sort |
Cornwall, Christopher E. |
title |
Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
title_short |
Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
title_full |
Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
title_fullStr |
Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
title_sort |
experimental design in ocean acidification research: problems and solutions |
publisher |
Oxford University Press (OUP) |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/73/3/572/31229614/fsv118.pdf |
genre |
Ocean acidification |
genre_facet |
Ocean acidification |
op_source |
ICES Journal of Marine Science volume 73, issue 3, page 572-581 ISSN 1095-9289 1054-3139 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsv118 |
container_title |
ICES Journal of Marine Science |
container_volume |
73 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
572 |
op_container_end_page |
581 |
_version_ |
1802648502529949696 |