Changing Ocean Biological Systems working group

The workshop is aimed at PhD students and ECRs new to multiple driver experiments, and is free but has limited spaces available.

Date and time: 9:00–15:30, Sunday, February 8, 2026 Location: University of Glasgow, room details TBA Title of the event: Designing multiple driver experiments Conveners: Sinéad Collins, University of Edinburgh, Simin Gao, University of Edinburgh, Paul Renaud, Akvaplan-niva Description: The MEDDLE resources were developed to help researchers design and carry out tractable and comparable multiple driver experiments. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use these resources to design multiple driver experiments. While the concepts and methods discussed can apply to many systems, examples used during the workshop will focus on manipulative experiments rather than observational data. The workshop is geared mainly towards PhD students, postdocs, and ECRs new to multiple driver research, and focuses heavily on the rationale of different experimental designs, and analysis strategies for multiple driver experiments. A basic working knowledge of statistics is needed (regression analysis), and statistical analysis examples will use R. Participants should bring a laptop with R and R studio installed. Topics include: • Defining a research question • Identifying relevant drivers • Identifying biological traits and responses • Experimental designs for multiple driver experiments • Statistical analysis plans Hosted by the SCOR project “Changing Ocean Biological Systems”, this free workshop will be led by Sinéad Collins, University of Edinburgh (UK), Simin Gao, University of Edinburgh (UK), Paul Renaud, Akvaplan-niva (Norway). Spaces are limited. If you would like to attend, contact Sinéad Collins (s.collins@ed.ac.uk) by January 15, 2026 to register your interest. Limited to 24 people, so please register early! Please include a brief (<150 words) statement outlining (a) your experience carrying out Ocean acidification or multiple driver experiments (if any) and (b) how you plan to incorporate multiple driver experiments into your work

The COBS working group is offering an experimental design workshop before Ocean Sciences in Glasgow in Feb 2026! 🌊

Join us for a day of learning about designing and analysing multiple stressor experiments without getting multiply stressed out.

forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...

The MEDDLE Data Analysis Guides as a Living Resource for Multiple‐Driver Marine Research Click on the article title to read more.

Our data analysis guides for multiple stressor/driver research 🌊

@christinamcgraw.bsky.social
@sineadcollins.bsky.social
@mridulkthomas.bsky.social
@chrisecornwall.bsky.social
+ Peter Dillingham, Steeve Comeau, Sam Dupont

aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🌊

Enjoyed teaching this excellent group of young 🌊 oceanographers experimental design and data analysis!

Our teaching team was @christinamcgraw.bsky.social, Peter Dillingham, Sam Dupont, @sineadcollins.bsky.social and @mridulkthomas.bsky.social

Reach out if you'd be interested in these workshops!

Training Course 1: Designing Multiple-Driver Experiments BECoMe-2025 and SCOR’s Changing Ocean Biological Systems infrastructure group are hosting a free training course for researchers interested in learning how to design and carry out multiple-driver (i.e., multiple stressor) experiments that measure responses in microbes, plants, or animals. This training course will guide participants in using the MEDDLE resources to: • Define a relevant research question • Identify key drivers, biological traits, and responses • Select an appropriate experimental design • Develop a statistical analysis plan Training Course Details Time &Date: 9:30 am - 4:30 pm, 18 August 2025 (Monday) Location: City University of Hong Kong Participant Limit: 24 researchers (first-come, first-served) Eligibility: Participants should have experience in designing and conducting single-driver experiments that study biotic responses (e.g. marine warming, ocean acidification). Conveners: Christina McGraw, Sam Dupont, Sinéad Collins, Mridul K. Thomas, Peter Dillingham

Training Course 2: Data Analysis for Multiple-Driver Experiments Researchers work hard to conduct interesting and challenging multi-driver experiments, but are often unaware of how best to analyse their data to take maximum advantage of these experiments. In this training course, participants will: • Learn some of the common statistical challenges that appear in multi-driver experiments and how to solve them • Work through an example R vignette for a multi-driver experiment • Simulate an example dataset based on a proposed experiment • Perform an appropriate analysis and visualise and interpret its output using “literate programming” via R markdown Training Course Details Time &Date: 9:30 am - 1:00 pm, 22 August 2025 (Friday) Location: City University of Hong Kong Participant Limit: 12 researchers (first-come, first-served) Eligibility: Attendance at Training Course 1 (Designing Multiple-Driver Experiments) is required, as Training Course 2 builds directly on the concepts developed in the first training course. Participants should have experience with R and good knowledge of regression. Strong Python skills may also be considered, but Training Course 2 will be conducted using R. Conveners: Peter Dillingham, Mridul K. Thomas, Sinéad Collins, Christina McGraw

We will be teaching two free training courses at the BECoME-2025 conference in Hong Kong next month🌊

Course 1: Designing Multiple-Driver Experiments
Course 2: Data Analysis for Multiple-Driver Experiments

Join us! Apply through the conference website:
www.become2025.com/registration

Check out some snaps from our recent MEDDLE workshop at #ITRS Brest, France on experimental design. Great participants! @scor-cobs.bsky.social

We've written tutorials in R on how to analyse your experimental data. This includes how your experiment & analyses can be used to answer scientific questions and provide input into mathematical models.

bsky.app/profile/scor...

Feedback welcome! We plan to update these, and to add more in the future.

7. Model-averaging, by Peter Dillingham:

Explore how model-averaging enhances the analysis of multi-driver marine experiments with nested and crossed designs, using Arthrocardia under future ocean conditions as a case study:

nzoac.nz/s/Model-aver....

6. Multiple driver response surfaces, by @mridulkthomas.bsky.social and @sineadcollins.bsky.social

Learn 3 ways to analyse data from a temperature x nutrients response surface experiment, and use the output to understand where in the oceans the species does well.

nzoac.nz/s/Response_s...

5. Single-driver response curves, by @mridulkthomas.bsky.social and @sineadcollins.bsky.social

Learn how to fit a temperature response curve to a simulated phytoplankton growth rate experiment. Then use the curve to learn about how the species performs across space & time.

nzoac.nz/s/Single_dri...

4. Time-response variables, by Sam Dupont, Peter Dillingham & christinamcgraw.bsky.social

Dive into modelling time-response data with R, using a sea urchin experiment to explore how environmental factors shape growth over time:

nzoac.nz/s/Time_respo...

3. Blocking in time, by Steeve Comeau and @chrisecornwall.bsky.social

Learn how to estimate the effects of two drivers on a response when your experiment is ‘blocked’ i.e. experimental units grouped in time, often because it’s not feasible to do all at once.

nzoac.nz/s/Blocking_i...

2. Analysing scenarios, by Steeve Comeau and @chrisecornwall.bsky.social

Learn how to estimate the effects of two drivers on a response when your experimental treatments are designed to reflect future climate scenarios.

nzoac.nz/s/Scenario_a...

1. Statistical power, by Peter Dillingham:

Explore how to use R's built-in functions and simulations to assess the statistical power of a study on sea urchin growth under changing ocean conditions.

nzoac.nz/s/Power-vign...

Ever wondered how to analyse your experimental data? 🌊🧪🌍

We’ve developed a series of tutorials in R to guide you through analysing & visualising data from single & multiple driver experiments.

Beginners and experts, we've got something for all of you.

Please share!

meddle-scor149.org/vignettes/

Designing multiple driver experiments – ITRS 2025 The MEDDLE resources were developed to help researchers design and carry out tractable, intercomparable multiple driver experiments. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use these…

We have a few slots free in our experimental design workshop at the International Temperate Reefs Symposium on June 30th in Brest, France 🌊

If you're attending the conference and are interested in honing your skills in climate change research/design, please sign up!

itrs-home.org/designing-mu...

Do you plan to do a multiple stressor/driver experiment? 🌊

We developed a 5-step guide to help you design and carry it out:

meddle-scor149.org/decision-sup...

We are excited to host a virtual workshop about how to design & conduct multiple-driver experiments for Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association researchers.

blog.wiomsa.net/2024/12/11/v...

Applications due 23 December! Contact @christinamcgraw.bsky.social for more information.

🌊

Jason Hall-Spencer at COP29

And Jason Hall-Spencer was at COP29, sharing insights on why the ocean is important for our future climate and therefore ongoing climate negotiations.

www.linkedin.com/posts/plymou...

Photo of COBS members and others at the Sixth International Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between Ocean Acidification Impacts and Economic Valuation in Monaco.

Photo of COBS members and others at the Sixth International Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between Ocean Acidification Impacts and Economic Valuation in Monaco.

Several of our members contributed to a couple of international meetings recently:

The Sixth International Workshop on Bridging the Gap Between Ocean Acidification Impacts and Economic Valuation in Monaco, organised by the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and the IAEA.

We are leading workshops on designing multiple driver experiments, at upcoming seaweed and temperate reef conferences 🌊

Thank you, and likewise! We are of course very interested in the tropics too, and had a meeting about coral reefs this past summer as well.

Experimental strategies to assess the biological ramifications of multiple drivers of global ocean change—A review Marine life is controlled by multiple physical and chemical drivers and by diverse ecological processes. Many of these oceanic properties are being altered by climate change and other anthropogenic p...

We've written papers/guides about how to improve experimental design so that we learn more from experiments.

We also teach workshops and build tools based on these principles. 🌊

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Thanks for this, David. Could you add us to the list as well?

Hello all! We're a working group studying how interacting drivers (or "multiple stressors") like temperature, acidification, etc. shape marine life. Follow us for new research and workshops, as well as tools to improve experimental design, data analysis, mathematical models, and more. 🌊

Hi David - could you please add us to the feed? Thanks!