Analysis of biodiversity experiments: A comparison of traditional and linear-model-based methods

We show that all methods were capable of answering Q1 and to some extent also Q5 although different methods use different procedures to reach the answer. Concerning Q2-Q4, we found that traditional methods provide more detailed insight into the ecological mechanisms than the linear-model-based methods which leave us just with brief information. A direct comparison between traditional biodiversity effects and effects from linear-model-based methods showed that species interactions from the diversity-interaction model were significantly positively correlated with the net effect, while species identity effects from diversity-interaction model were related to the species relative yield. The selection of an appropriate method for BEF experiment analysis thus depends on the questions we ask which in turn also affect the design of the BEF experiment.