The analytical units for the synthesis are named "cases", i.e. a biological response to two or more stressors. There are cases of degradation (e.g. the stressor application phases of AquaFlow and ExStream systems) and cases of recovery. Optionally, data from other sources will be included into analyses.

As a first analytical step, the effect type (i.e. stressor dominance, additive effect, antagonistic interaction, synergistic interaction, reversal interaction, opposing interaction) will be derived for each individual case. In a second step, values will be assigned to each case that describe how the four ARC components potentially influence the way multiple stressors affect the communities or functions. This data source will be the raw material for testing the RESIST main hypotheses.