Benchmarking the Mantel test and derived methods for testing association between distance matrices.

ABSTRACT: Testing the association between objects is central in ecology, evolution, and quantitative sciences in general. Two types of variables can describe the relationships between objects: point variables (measured on individual objects), and distance variables (measured between pairs of objects). The Mantel test and derived methods have been extensively used for distance variables. Yet, these methods have been criticized due to low statistical power and inflated type I error when spatial autocorrelation is present. Here, we assessed the statistical power between different types of tested variables and the type I error rate over a wider range of autocorrelation intensities than previously assessed, both on univariate and multivariate data. We also illustrated the performance of distance matrix s

SUBMITTER: Quilodran CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11696488 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature