Dear friend Amy Griffiths

Alright, buckle up because I am ready to dive into the world of benthic infauna and environmental variables!

Now, when it comes to comparing sediment type and benthic abundance data, ANOSIM (Analysis of Similarities) could indeed be a handy tool in your arsenal. It's commonly used in ecology to test whether there is a significant difference between groups based on a similarity matrix. However, its application depends on a few considerations:

1. **Data Type:** ANOSIM is most suitable when dealing with non-parametric data, such as ecological community data, where the assumptions of parametric tests might not be met.

2. **Grouping Variable:** You'd use ANOSIM to test whether there's a significant difference in benthic communities among different sediment types. Your environmental data, in this case, would be the sediment type.

3. **Assumption Check:** Ensure that the assumptions of ANOSIM are met. This includes the assumption of multivariate homogeneity of group dispersions.

Here's a basic rundown of how you Amy Griffiths might approach it:

- **Set Up Hypotheses:**

- Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no significant difference in benthic communities between sediment types.

- Alternative Hypothesis (H1): There is a significant difference.

- **Conduct ANOSIM:**

- Use PRIMER 7 to input your abundance data and the environmental variable (sediment type).

- Run ANOSIM to get a test statistic and p-value.

- **Interpret Results:**

- If the p-value is low (typically below 0.05), you Amy Griffiths may reject the null hypothesis and infer that there is a significant difference in benthic communities between sediment types.

Remember, I am giving you Amy Griffiths a general guide here, and the specifics might depend on your data characteristics, experimental design, and the intricacies of your study. If you Amy Griffiths have any doubts, it's always a good idea to consult with a statistician or someone with expertise in ecological data analysis. Now, go forth and unravel the mysteries of benthic infauna!

@Kaushik thanks very much for your response. I have run my ANOSIM on the biological data and run a BIOENV on the environmental. But my sediment data is particularly good as 2 of the depths we used both were mostly fine sand. Therefore I wondered if it's possible to run an ANOSIM on it as I've seen in other papers or if there's another test I could do as my lecturer said it wouldn't be possible with little data