Testing for difference in Sediment detachment by ground cover

Author
Affiliation

Nefriend Francisco

Statistician

Published

May 20, 2025

Data

Some Descriptives on the Data
Characteristic Overall
N = 1081
Ground cover
bare
N = 391
grassland
N = 341
gravel
N = 351
day



    1 66 (61%) 24 (62%) 19 (56%) 23 (66%)
    2 42 (39%) 15 (38%) 15 (44%) 12 (34%)
replicate



    2 37 (34%) 13 (33%) 12 (35%) 12 (34%)
    3 36 (33%) 13 (33%) 11 (32%) 12 (34%)
    4 35 (32%) 13 (33%) 11 (32%) 11 (31%)
time



    1 17 (16%) 6 (15%) 5 (15%) 6 (17%)
    2 18 (17%) 6 (15%) 6 (18%) 6 (17%)
    3 18 (17%) 6 (15%) 6 (18%) 6 (17%)
    4 18 (17%) 6 (15%) 6 (18%) 6 (17%)
    5 15 (14%) 6 (15%) 6 (18%) 3 (8.6%)
    6 6 (5.6%) 3 (7.7%) 1 (2.9%) 2 (5.7%)
    7 8 (7.4%) 3 (7.7%) 2 (5.9%) 3 (8.6%)
    8 8 (7.4%) 3 (7.7%) 2 (5.9%) 3 (8.6%)
filterpaper_petridsh 83.8 (81.0, 86.1) 83.1 (79.3, 86.2) 83.6 (81.0, 85.3) 83.8 (81.6, 86.4)
total weight 84.5 (81.7, 87.1) 85.2 (80.0, 88.6) 83.9 (81.5, 85.6) 84.5 (82.4, 87.2)
    (Missing) 2 0 2 0
wt_sediments_30min 0.29 (0.04, 1.16) 1.15 (0.61, 2.39) 0.04 (0.01, 0.12) 0.21 (0.02, 0.61)
wt_sediments_min 0.01 (0.00, 0.04) 0.04 (0.02, 0.08) 0.00 (0.00, 0.00) 0.01 (0.00, 0.02)
1 n (%); Median (Q1, Q3)

Linear mixed effects models tessting difference in sediment detachmenyt by ground cover

Fixed Effects Summary with p-values
effect Term Estimate Std. Error t-value df p value CI Lower CI Upper
fixed (Intercept) 0.035 0.431 0.082 62.173 0.935 −0.827 0.898
fixed day2 0.139 0.276 0.504 5.370 0.634 −0.556 0.835
fixed grassland −0.510 0.593 −0.860 78.490 0.392 −1.691 0.671
fixed gravel −0.171 0.565 −0.302 78.030 0.763 −1.295 0.954
fixed time2 0.966 0.565 1.710 78.030 0.091 −0.159 2.091
fixed time3 0.195 0.565 0.345 78.030 0.731 −0.930 1.320
fixed time4 −0.185 0.565 −0.327 78.030 0.744 −1.309 0.940
fixed time5 −0.104 0.565 −0.184 78.030 0.854 −1.229 1.021
fixed time6 0.199 0.700 0.284 78.032 0.777 −1.195 1.592
fixed time7 0.409 0.700 0.585 78.032 0.560 −0.984 1.803
fixed time8 −0.066 0.700 −0.094 78.032 0.925 −1.460 1.328
fixed grassland:time2 −0.976 0.819 −1.191 78.274 0.237 −2.606 0.655
fixed gravel:time2 −1.104 0.799 −1.382 78.030 0.171 −2.695 0.486
fixed grassland:time3 −0.185 0.819 −0.226 78.274 0.822 −1.816 1.446
fixed gravel:time3 1.183 0.799 1.481 78.030 0.143 −0.408 2.773
fixed grassland:time4 0.189 0.819 0.231 78.274 0.818 −1.441 1.820
fixed gravel:time4 0.006 0.799 0.008 78.030 0.994 −1.584 1.597
fixed grassland:time5 0.135 0.819 0.165 78.274 0.869 −1.496 1.766
fixed gravel:time5 0.047 0.900 0.052 78.032 0.959 −1.744 1.838
fixed grassland:time6 −0.153 1.283 −0.119 80.997 0.905 −2.706 2.400
fixed gravel:time6 −0.345 1.058 −0.326 78.892 0.746 −2.451 1.762
fixed grassland:time7 −0.267 1.073 −0.249 78.334 0.804 −2.402 1.869
fixed gravel:time7 −0.651 0.978 −0.666 78.030 0.508 −2.599 1.297
fixed grassland:time8 0.414 1.074 0.385 79.284 0.701 −1.725 2.552
fixed gravel:time8 0.217 0.978 0.222 78.030 0.825 −1.731 2.165

Main effect of ground cover

Comparison Estimate p-value Interpretation
grassland vs. bare -0.51 0.393 ❌ Not significant
gravel vs. bare -0.171 0.763 ❌ Not significant

Interpretation: There is no statistically significant main effect of ground cover on sediment detachment across all time points. Sediment levels under grassland and gravel are not significantly different from bare soil when averaged over time.

Overall effect estimate

Type III ANOVA Results from LMER Model
Effect Chisq Df Pr(>Chisq) Signif.
(Intercept) 0.007 1.000 0.935
day 0.254 1.000 0.614
gcover 0.754 2.000 0.686
time 5.771 7.000 0.567
gcover:time 12.260 14.000 0.585

🔍 Main Interpretation There is no statistically significant main effect of ground cover (bare, grassland, gravel) on sediment detachment across all times and days. The mixed-effects model revealed that ground cover type, time of sampling, day of experiment, and their interactions did not have statistically significant effects on sediment detachment (all p-values > 0.05). This suggests that under the experimental conditions, sediment detachment was relatively stable across different ground cover types and sampling times.

Additional visualizations

Estimated marginal means

Effect plots