A comparison of three methods of multivariate analysis of upland grasslands in North Wales

Abstract

Abstract. In a study of the relationships between vegetation and environment in North Snowdonian grasslands, 166 quadrats on 10 altitudinal transects were analysed with Detrended Correspondence Analysis, Detrended Canonical Correspondence Analysis and Fuzzy Set Ordination. These techniques provide consistent results. DCCA and FSO, both using floristic community data and environmental information, simplify the procedure of vegetation‐environment analysis. FSO analyses and synthesizes ecological information; it may yield more reasonable and interpretable results.