A new method for the analysis of three-dimensional data matrices in agricultural experimentation

Abstract

The analysis of three-dimensional data sets has received considerable attention in ecology, but relatively little in agriculture, in which such data sets are equally common. A model has recently been proposed for the (sites x species x times) case in marine ecology; it can be regarded as based either on Euclidean distance or on the analysis of variance. The model is recapitulated in outline, its properties are somewhat extended, and its application to agronomic experiments is discussed. A brief account is given of the use of the model in the analysis of two real-life agronomic experiments. Finally, the relationship of such methods to those of classical statistics is briefly discussed.