MM-23-03: Accounting for Scale Bias in Marine Minerals Studies

Currently, many BOEM-funded marine minerals field studies produce results based on data collected in a discrete, ecologically arbitrary footprint (i.e., a dredge or leasing area) over a relatively short period of time (2-4 years). While these offer valuable insight into site-specific conditions and responses, analyzing these data at finer or coarser scales, often integrating external datasets (e.g., species distribution relative to regional stratification) is often limited due to scope, data availability, and budget limitations. With several robust datasets focused on the ecology before and after marine minerals activities, it is an opportune time to re-evaluate past studies and proactively consider future methods. BOEM has identified the need to better understand how the spatial and temporal scales (explicit or implicit) in the study designs, sampling strategies, and analytical or statistical methods underlying BOEM’s biological and ecosystem studies can implicate results, findings, and interpretations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate past MMP studies and provide guidance on how to plan studies at the appropriate scale or nested scales. This will ensure that BOEM is maximizing the design, methods, and application of environmental studies for assessments and decisions.Objectives include identifying how well the spatial and temporal scales of MMP research and authorized activities match (or mismatch) the scales of habitat and organismal distribution and naturally occurring phenomena that may substantially influence habitat or organismal distribution. With this information, this study will provide recommendations and propose appropriate methods or approaches that consider relevant scales for future MMP research.Specific objectives include:Defining spatial and temporal scales of dredge disturbance and potentially impacted habitat and organisms, from a single dredge pass to the entire Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico OCS (e.g., as demonstrated for wind energy by Stokesbury et al., 2022 and Trifonova et al., 2022); describe these relative to other common ocean uses and disturbances (e.g., fishing or storms)Defining supporting concepts, such as disturbance, impact, response, and resilienceIdentify important habitats, functional guilds, and organisms and the scales at which they are, or are not, affected by dredgingResampling existing datasets or synthesizing regional datasets to examine and illustrate different scales of analysis and how that affects interpretationsDeveloping recommendations for future research methods and modelsThe study would develop a methods paper to outline data requirements and proposed execution of how to identify scale bias in MMP studies. This paper would also identify the spatial and temporal scales of potential impact from BOEM-authorized dredging activities. Based on these recommendations, existing datasets on fish and habitat from relevant BOEM studies, plus data from partners like U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service, states, or local communities, would be reviewed for data richness. If sufficient data exists for reanalysis, spatial and temporal relationships could be investigated at multiple scales. Based on the methods paper and reanalysis, recommendations for study design and analysis will be provided.