fields: Meta data on the plots including randomization
In ISU-PrairiePlusPigs/RuckmanMeta: Contains meta data for the Ruckman experiment

Description Usage Format Details

Information on each of the plots in this experiment.

fields

A data frame with 21 observations and 8 variables: field: the field id block: the block id whole_plot: the wholeplot for randomization of harvest year area_acre: plot area in acres manure: "yes" if manure was previously used on the plot and "no" otherwise x: approximate field x coordinate for plotting y: approximate field y coordinate for plotting trt: the shorthand randomized (except for the non-manure plots) treatment treatment: the long treatment name

This experiment is a blocked split-plot design, i.e. within each block there is a split-plot. Each block has 6 fields which are plot into 2 whole plots for randomization of initial harvest year. Within each whole plot there are 3 fields which are randomly assigned one of three treatments (FB, LoDiv, and HiDiv).

This design was chosen because initial harvest year is not of scientific interest as future use of prairie as a energy/fuel source will need a steady flow of harvested prairie and therefore there will always be an alternating pattern in field harvest which is initiated by a one-year separation in initial harvest year.

The use of manure was not randomized and thus these three fields are considered an augment of the design. The impact of manure on the FB treatment is not of interest, but it is of interest on LoDiv and HiDiv. To increase power, we decided to compare a single treatment with and without manure. We decided to use HiDiv since if there is negligible effect of manure on HiDiv, then we might reasonably infer negligible effect of manure on LoDiv while the converse does not seem to be immediate.

ISU-PrairiePlusPigs/RuckmanMeta documentation built on May 8, 2019, 1:26 p.m.