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13. Linking assemblage to environment (BEST: Bio-Env, LINKTREE)

BEST rationale

The main rationale for the Analyse>BEST procedure in PRIMER is to find the best match between the...

Bio-Env vs BVStep

BEST amalgamated the earlier (PRIMER 5) BIOENV and BVSTEP procedures (hence BEST = Bio-Env + Step...

Change to active sheet for BEST

In what is one of the very few examples of ‘moving the furniture around’ between PRIMER 7 and ear...

Grouping variables in BEST

After the initial choice of Method, the next area on the BEST dialog inputs the explanatory (fitt...

Selecting variables & resemblance

After the (✓Group variables(indicator)) check box, the next option is a Select variables/groups b...

2-way BEST

On the right of this main dialog box for BEST is another option new to PRIMER 7, also covered in ...

The BEST matching statistic, $\rho$

On the mid-right of the main dialog for BEST, the box headed (Correlation method:) now offers thr...

Limiting the number of combinations

The final area of the main BEST dialog, headed Permutations, which carries out the global BEST te...

BEST results detail

The Next > button now takes you to a Results dialog box, which controls two features of the BEST ...

(Messolongi diatoms & abiotic data)

A study of diatom assemblages (abundances of 193 species) at 17 sites in the lagoons of Messol-on...

Global BEST test

The question of statistical significance testing on the results of the Bio-Env (or BVStep) proced...

Linkage trees – rationale

Another technique for linking sample patterns based on assemblage data to a suite of environmenta...

Non-metric, non-linear, non-additive

The Analyse>Cluster>LINKTREE routine has a number of features that are designed to mesh to the PR...

LINKTREE (Messolongi lagoons data

Continuing the lagoon diatom study, having first selected (highlighting then Select>Highlighted) ...

SIMPROF test in LINKTREE

Low values of B% correspond to samples which are rather close together on the MDS plot and the qu...

Missing data in linkage trees

Note that LINKTREE is able to tolerate some missing data in the abiotic matrix – the piecemeal fo...