Human impacts are increasing in the ocean worldwide and human activities in specific locations can be particularly disruptive to marine organisms in these locations. Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) studies are designed to examine the effects of human activities, as well as natural changes. These studies often take advantage of predicted changes to an environment, often by humans, by establishing data collection beforehand to gather baseline information to be compared to data collected during and after the predicted change. In the marine environment, BACI studies have been used to study the impacts of anthropogenic activities (pile driving, development of ports, construction of wind farms, changes in ship routing and restoration projects) as well as natural perturbations. The results of BACI studies can be used to minimize environmental disruption in future development. More fundamentally, BACI studies can provide information about potential resiliency - how capable individuals, populations, and ecosystems in the ocean are in responding to change.
BACI studies are more popular in terrestrial research than in oceanographic research, but their applications could be just as beneficial in ocean conservation. The goal of this Research Topic would be to collate results from BACI studies in the ocean to share information across different subfields of ocean science, initiate conversation about strengths and weaknesses of BACI studies particular to the ocean, and provide lessons for conducting future BACI studies. Frontiers in Marine Science provides a venue for transmitting information about BACI studies to the broader ocean science community. This Research Topic would also expose the BACI approach to a broader range of other scientists, who may not be familiar with the benefits and limitations of this research approach. A search of Frontiers in Marine Science articles indicates that only two so far mention BACI in their abstracts.
· Presentation of the results of BACI studies in specific areas of the ocean (research papers)
· Reviews of the use of BACI approaches that identify strengths and weaknesses of this approach, as well as recommendations for future use of this technique (review papers)
· Extension of the BACI approach with new analysis techniques and new applications
· Comparisons of marine and terrestrial BACI studies and what can be learned from such comparisons.
Human impacts are increasing in the ocean worldwide and human activities in specific locations can be particularly disruptive to marine organisms in these locations. Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) studies are designed to examine the effects of human activities, as well as natural changes. These studies often take advantage of predicted changes to an environment, often by humans, by establishing data collection beforehand to gather baseline information to be compared to data collected during and after the predicted change. In the marine environment, BACI studies have been used to study the impacts of anthropogenic activities (pile driving, development of ports, construction of wind farms, changes in ship routing and restoration projects) as well as natural perturbations. The results of BACI studies can be used to minimize environmental disruption in future development. More fundamentally, BACI studies can provide information about potential resiliency - how capable individuals, populations, and ecosystems in the ocean are in responding to change.
BACI studies are more popular in terrestrial research than in oceanographic research, but their applications could be just as beneficial in ocean conservation. The goal of this Research Topic would be to collate results from BACI studies in the ocean to share information across different subfields of ocean science, initiate conversation about strengths and weaknesses of BACI studies particular to the ocean, and provide lessons for conducting future BACI studies. Frontiers in Marine Science provides a venue for transmitting information about BACI studies to the broader ocean science community. This Research Topic would also expose the BACI approach to a broader range of other scientists, who may not be familiar with the benefits and limitations of this research approach. A search of Frontiers in Marine Science articles indicates that only two so far mention BACI in their abstracts.
· Presentation of the results of BACI studies in specific areas of the ocean (research papers)
· Reviews of the use of BACI approaches that identify strengths and weaknesses of this approach, as well as recommendations for future use of this technique (review papers)
· Extension of the BACI approach with new analysis techniques and new applications
· Comparisons of marine and terrestrial BACI studies and what can be learned from such comparisons.
