Hello everyone, My experimental lay out is a split split plot experiment (block/tillage/nitrogen/cover crop type) replicated on 4 blocks. 2 pseudoreplications were carried out within the experimental units (hence the last level of nesting) each of the two years.
I am analyzing the effect of these factors (tillage*nitrogen*cover crop type) on weed biomass. Up until now, the following model was working just fine: mod=glmer(dry_bio_weeds_m2+0.001~*block+year+tillage*nitrogen*cover crop* +(1|block:tillage)+(1|block:tillage:N)+(1|block:tillage:N:CC)+(1|block:year)+(1|block:year:tillage)+(1|block:year:tillage:N)+(1|block:year:tillage:N:CC),family=gaussian(link="sqrt"),control=glmerControl(optimizer="bobyqa",optCtrl=list(maxfun=2e5)),data=biomassCC) However, I also wanted to take into account the variability of cover crop biomass production because I expect that the relationship between weed and cover crop biomass is not the same depending on cover crop type (Brassica vs. Legume) : mod1=glmer(dry_bio_weeds_m2+0.001~*block+year+dry_bio_cover_m2*tillage*nitrogen*cover crop*+(1|block:tillage)+(1|block:tillage:N)+(1|block:tillage:N:CC)+(1|block:year)+(1|block:year:tillage)+(1|block:year:tillage:N)+(1|block:year:tillage:N:CC),family=gaussian(link="sqrt"),control=glmerControl(optimizer="bobyqa",optCtrl=list(maxfun=2e5)),data=biomassCC_wo_C) # the control = baresoil was taken out For each combination of cover crop type, nitrogen level and tillage, 16 observations of cover crop biomass (i.e. dry_bio_cover_m2) are available (4 blocks x 2 points per experimental unit x 2 years). It seems reasonable (at least to me) to test these slopes. I usually obtain p. values with monet::test_terms or afex::mixed() but it produces non sensical denominator d.f. with this model (first sign of overfitting?). However, mod1 shows a 10 point AIC drop compared to a model that would not include "dry_bio_cover_m2". To investigate further, I headed toward car::Anova(model, type="III") and obtained the following table: Analysis of Deviance Table (Type III Wald chisquare tests) Response: dry_bio_weeds_m2 + 0.001 Chisq Df Pr(>Chisq) (Intercept) 5.3317e+02 1 < 2.2e-16 *** block 8.0032e+00 3 0.0459463 * year 2.7720e-01 1 0.5985096 dry_bio_cover_m2 *7.8745e+04* 1 < 2.2e-16 *** tillage 1.3815e+01 1 0.0002017 *** N 8.4024e+01 3 < 2.2e-16 *** CC 2.7821e+01 2 9.095e-07 *** dry_bio_cover_m2:tillage 2.6228e+01 1 3.034e-07 *** dry_bio_cover_m2:N *1.3953e+05* 3 < 2.2e-16 *** tillage:N 1.3281e+01 3 0.0040657 ** dry_bio_cover_m2:CC 4.2261e+01 2 6.654e-10 *** tillage:CC 1.3697e+01 2 0.0010613 ** N:CC 4.1353e+01 6 2.467e-07 *** dry_bio_cover_m2:tillage:N 1.7634e+01 3 0.0005234 *** dry_bio_cover_m2:tillage:CC 7.5090e-01 2 0.6869748 dry_bio_cover_m2:N:CC 4.7310e+01 6 1.623e-08 *** tillage:N:CC 1.7857e+01 6 0.0065986 ** dry_bio_cover_m2:tillage:N:CC 3.7262e+01 6 1.565e-06 *** --- Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 I am no statistician but some of the Chi square values seem particularly huge (*7.8745e+04 and **1.3953e+05)*. The output plots however seem to back this up.... Could anyone give me their feedback? Thank you very much. Guillaume ADEUX PS: don't hesitate to ask for complementary information <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> [[alternative HTML version deleted]] _______________________________________________ R-sig-ecology mailing list R-sig-ecology@r-project.org https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-ecology