ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the process of developing the list of candidate causes. Strategies are described for refining the list and dealing with multiple causes. Identifying which causes is investigated requires balancing the objectives of efficiently managing resources for the assessment while ensuring that the most important candidate causes are considered. Including more candidates increases the chances that the assessment will evaluate the real cause as well as causes of interest to different audiences. The process of developing the list of candidate causes provides an opportunity to ponder which ecological and physiological mechanisms might be operating to produce the effect. Evidence for a candidate cause may seem adequate until other causes are considered that may have stronger evidence. Causal analyses often benefit by grouping stressors by common mechanisms or modes of action.
