Controls and additive series
Rule #1 Make sure your control, is actually a control e.g. non-lethal presence of predators in bromeliads….
Caged Predator Free Predator No Predator
Caged Predator Free Predator No Predator
Additive controls… Group exercise: Read your stream control example, and decide on: (1) What is wrong with the design? (2) How you might fix it.
Scenario 1 Before After A B C A B C
Scenario 2 B C A + pollutant E F D - pollutant
What is the probability that the 3 “worst” streams are randomly assigned to the pollutant treatment?
Scenario 3 + chemical in alkaline solution control Before After B C B D D control
Scenario 4 A B C Before After D E F + pollutant control
Scenario 5 ?
Insect abundance = m1 * width + m2 * dioxin + m3 * width*dioxin + Y-intercept (and error)
Summary of control types Which scenarios lacked: Control for initial conditions? Unmanipulated, contemporaneous control? Control for side effect of manipulation? Control for covariates? Control for non-target response?
BACI design Before After Control Impact Unmanipulated, contemporaneous control Initial conditions Eg. Scenario 3 Before After + pollutant Before After control
BACI design Before After Control Impact Unmanipulated, contemporaneous control Initial conditions Before After control + pollutant
Example of BACI design: on forest fragments and birds Ernest Leupin’s study on forest fragments and birds
Sicamous Creek Research Forest Figure 2. Experimental layout and treatments at the Sicamous Creek Experimental Forest. A- Uncut Reserves, B- 0.1ha openings, C- Selection Cut, D- 10 ha opening, E- 1ha openings . Each Treatment was replicated three times. Dashed line indicates the sampling extension of one uncut reserve.
Figure 3. Aerial view (south-west) of the resulting forest matrix after harvest.
How can we analyze BACI designs? Randomized block? A treatment x date ANOVA? Before After + pollutant control A B C D E F What is n? What is k? How many independent experimental units in total?
How can we analyze BACI designs? Randomized block? A treatment x date ANOVA? Before After + pollutant control What is n? What is k? How many independent experimental units in total? A B C G H I D E F J K L
How can we analyze BACI designs? Two separate ANOVAs / t-tests? Before After + pollutant control Different? Different?
How can we analyze BACI designs? Two separate ANOVAs / t-tests? Impact sites Y variable before after before after before after before after A B C
How can we analyze BACI designs? Need to match the number of datapoints with the number of experimental units Need to take advantage of built-in control for stream identity
How can we analyze BACI designs? One solution: Use difference between before and after as the data! Before After Difference + pollutant A B C A B C A B C Before After Difference control D E F D E F D E F