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I am measuring the differences in fungal abundance in different stages of grazing and depth so I have tow factors (grazing intensity and soil depth) My main effects are all significant but so is the interaction.

However, does that mean the hypothesis that grazing will effect fungal abundance is true because if there is an interaction you generally don't discuss the main effects right?

I want to make sure that I am interpreting and getting my points across correct.

kjetil b halvorsen
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Sean
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  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking. – Community Mar 13 '24 at 23:38
  • Hi Sean! There are a lot of questions about this here on CV. See here for example (incl. all the links in the comments). Does this help? If not please clarify your question. – Stefan Mar 13 '24 at 23:50
  • Hi Stefan, that does help a bit. Thank you. I would like to know peoples thoughts about writing about it in the discussion of a paper. Is it appropriate to say " fungal diversity was higher in X grazing treatment" if the interaction is significant or is this not appropriate? – Sean Mar 14 '24 at 00:58
  • Have you visualized the interaction? That usually helps. If you edit in the interaction plot into your question, posters are probably going to be able to help with interpreting your results. – Sointu Mar 14 '24 at 08:34

1 Answers1

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It is important to keep the question you are trying to answer in mind when interpreting interactions. I believe it would be appropriate to say "fungal diversity was higher in X grazing treatment" however due to the interaction it is important to contextualize how the fungal diversity differs with respect to soil depth.

For instance soil depth may positively affect fungal diversity in grazing treatment X but negatively affect fungal diversity in grazing treatment Y. However fungal diversity can still be higher in treatment X than treatment Y. If you are trying to answer a question such as "how does soil depth and grazing treatment affect fungal diversity?" you must talk about the interaction. However if your question is "how does grazing treatment affect fungal diversity?" the interaction is less important to address. Displaying the interaction visually is a great way to help explain these differences.

kjetil b halvorsen
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Thomson Harris
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