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metan (multi-environment trials analysis) provides useful functions for analyzing multi-environment trial data using parametric and non-parametric methods. The package will help you to:

Installation

Install the released version of metan from CRAN with:

Or install the development version from GitHub with:

devtools::install_github("TiagoOlivoto/metan")

# To build the HTML vignette use
devtools::install_github("TiagoOlivoto/metan", build_vignettes = TRUE)

Note: If you are a Windows user, you should also first download and install the latest version of Rtools.

For the latest release notes on this development version, see the NEWS file.

Cheatsheet

Getting started

metan offers a set of functions that can be used to manipulate, summarize, analyze and plot typical multi-environment trial data. Maybe, one of the first functions users should use would be inspect(). Here, we will inspect the example dataset data_ge that contains data on two variables assessed in 10 genotypes growing in 14 environments.

library(metan)
inspect(data_ge, plot = TRUE)
# # A tibble: 5 × 10
#   Variable Class   Missing Levels Valid_n   Min Median   Max Outlier Text 
#   <chr>    <chr>   <chr>   <chr>    <int> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl> <lgl>
# 1 ENV      factor  No      14         420 NA     NA    NA         NA NA   
# 2 GEN      factor  No      10         420 NA     NA    NA         NA NA   
# 3 REP      factor  No      3          420 NA     NA    NA         NA NA   
# 4 GY       numeric No      -          420  0.67   2.61  5.09       0 NA   
# 5 HM       numeric No      -          420 38     48    58          0 NA

No issues while inspecting the data. If any issue is given here (like outliers, missing values, etc.) consider using find_outliers() to find possible outliers in the data set or any metan’s data manipulation tool such as remove_rows_na() to remove rows with NA values, replace_zero() to replace 0’s with NA, as_factor() to convert desired columns to factor, find_text_in_num() to find text fragments in columns assumed to be numeric, or even tidy_strings() to tidy up strings.

Descriptive statistics

metan provides a set of functions to compute descriptive statistics. The easiest way to do that is by using desc_stat().

desc_stat(data_ge2)
# # A tibble: 15 × 10
#    variable    cv     max    mean  median     min  sd.amo     se    ci.t n.valid
#    <chr>    <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>  <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>
#  1 CD        7.34  18.6    16.0    16      12.9    1.17   0.0939  0.186      156
#  2 CDED      5.71   0.694   0.586   0.588   0.495  0.0334 0.0027  0.0053     156
#  3 CL        7.95  34.7    29.0    28.7    23.5    2.31   0.185   0.365      156
#  4 CW       25.2   38.5    24.8    24.5    11.1    6.26   0.501   0.99       156
#  5 ED        5.58  54.9    49.5    49.9    43.5    2.76   0.221   0.437      156
#  6 EH       21.2    1.88    1.34    1.41    0.752  0.284  0.0228  0.045      156
#  7 EL        8.28  17.9    15.2    15.1    11.5    1.26   0.101   0.199      156
#  8 EP       10.5    0.660   0.537   0.544   0.386  0.0564 0.0045  0.0089     156
#  9 KW       18.9  251.    173.    175.    106.    32.8    2.62    5.18       156
# 10 NKE      14.2  697.    512.    509.    332.    72.6    5.82   11.5        156
# 11 NKR      10.7   42      32.2    32      23.2    3.47   0.277   0.548      156
# 12 NR       10.2   21.2    16.1    16      12.4    1.64   0.131   0.259      156
# 13 PERK      2.17  91.8    87.4    87.5    81.2    1.90   0.152   0.300      156
# 14 PH       13.4    3.04    2.48    2.52    1.71   0.334  0.0267  0.0528     156
# 15 TKW      13.9  452.    339.    342.    218.    47.1    3.77    7.44       156

AMMI model

Fitting the model

The AMMI model is fitted with the function performs_ammi(). To analyze multiple variables at once we can use a comma-separated vector of unquoted variable names, or use any select helper in the argument resp. Here, using everything() we apply the function to all numeric variables in the data. For more details, see the complete vignette.

model <- performs_ammi(data_ge,
                       env = ENV,
                       gen = GEN,
                       rep = REP,
                       resp = everything(),
                       verbose = FALSE)
# Significance of IPCAs
get_model_data(model, "ipca_pval")
# Class of the model: performs_ammi
# Variable extracted: Pr(>F)
# # A tibble: 9 × 4
#   PC       DF     GY     HM
#   <chr> <dbl>  <dbl>  <dbl>
# 1 PC1      21 0      0     
# 2 PC2      19 0      0     
# 3 PC3      17 0.0014 0.0021
# 4 PC4      15 0.0096 0.0218
# 5 PC5      13 0.318  0.0377
# 6 PC6      11 0.561  0.041 
# 7 PC7       9 0.754  0.0633
# 8 PC8       7 0.804  0.232 
# 9 PC9       5 0.934  0.944

Biplots

The well-known AMMI1 and AMMI2 biplots can be created with plot_scores(). Note that since performs_ammi allows analyzing multiple variables at once, e.g., resp = c(v1, v2, ...), the output model is a list, in this case with two elements (GY and HM). By default, the biplots are created for the first variable of the model. To choose another variable use the argument var (e.g., var = "HM").

a <- plot_scores(model)
b <- plot_scores(model,
                 type = 2, # AMMI 2 biplot
                 polygon = TRUE, # show a polygon
                 highlight = c("G4", "G5", "G6"), #highlight genotypes
                 col.alpha.env = 0.5, # alpha for environments
                 col.alpha.gen = 0, # remove the other genotypes
                 col.env = "gray", # color for environment point
                 col.segm.env = "gray", # color for environment segment
                 plot_theme = theme_metan_minimal()) # theme
arrange_ggplot(a, b, tag_levels = "a")

GGE model

The GGE model is fitted with the function gge(). For more details, see the complete vignette.

model <- gge(data_ge, ENV, GEN, GY)
model2 <- gge(data_ge, ENV, GEN, GY, svp = "genotype")
model3 <- gge(data_ge, ENV, GEN, GY, svp = "symmetrical")
a <- plot(model)
b <- plot(model2, type = 8)
c <- plot(model2,
          type = 2,
          col.gen = "black",
          col.env = "gray70",
          axis.expand = 1.5,
          plot_theme = theme_metan_minimal())
arrange_ggplot(a, b, c, tag_levels = "a")

BLUP model

Linear-mixed effect models to predict the response variable in METs are fitted using the function gamem_met(). Here we will obtain the predicted means for genotypes in the variables GY and HM. For more details, see the complete vignette.

model2 <- 
  gamem_met(data_ge,
            env = ENV,
            gen = GEN,
            rep = REP,
            resp = everything())
# Evaluating trait GY |======================                      | 50% 00:00:01 Evaluating trait HM |============================================| 100% 00:00:02 
# Method: REML/BLUP
# Random effects: GEN, GEN:ENV
# Fixed effects: ENV, REP(ENV)
# Denominador DF: Satterthwaite's method
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# P-values for Likelihood Ratio Test of the analyzed traits
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
#     model       GY       HM
#  COMPLETE       NA       NA
#       GEN 1.11e-05 5.07e-03
#   GEN:ENV 2.15e-11 2.27e-15
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
# All variables with significant (p < 0.05) genotype-vs-environment interaction
# Get the variance components
get_model_data(model2, what = "vcomp")
# Class of the model: waasb
# Variable extracted: vcomp
# # A tibble: 3 × 3
#   Group        GY    HM
#   <chr>     <dbl> <dbl>
# 1 GEN      0.0280 0.490
# 2 GEN:ENV  0.0567 2.19 
# 3 Residual 0.0967 2.84

Plotting the BLUPs for genotypes

To produce a plot with the predicted means, use the function plot_blup().

a <- plot_blup(model2)
b <- plot_blup(model2,
               prob = 0.2,
               col.shape = c("gray20", "gray80"),
               invert = TRUE)
arrange_ggplot(a, b, tag_levels = "a")

Computing parametric and non-parametric stability indexes

The easiest way to compute parametric and non-parametric stability indexes in metan is by using the function ge_stats(). It is a wrapper function around a lot of specific functions for stability indexes. To get the results into a “ready-to-read” file, use get_model_data() or its shortcut gmd().

stats <- ge_stats(data_ge, ENV, GEN, REP, GY)
# Evaluating trait GY |============================================| 100% 00:00:08 
get_model_data(stats)
# Class of the model: ge_stats
# Variable extracted: stats
# # A tibble: 10 × 44
#    var   GEN       Y    CV   ACV   POLAR   Var Shukla  Wi_g  Wi_f  Wi_u Ecoval
#    <chr> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>   <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl>  <dbl>
#  1 GY    G1     2.60  35.2  34.1  0.0298 10.9  0.0280  84.4  89.2  81.1  1.22 
#  2 GY    G10    2.47  42.3  38.6  0.136  14.2  0.244   59.2  64.6  54.4  7.96 
#  3 GY    G2     2.74  34.0  35.2  0.0570 11.3  0.0861  82.8  95.3  75.6  3.03 
#  4 GY    G3     2.96  29.9  33.8  0.0216 10.1  0.0121 104.   99.7 107.   0.725
#  5 GY    G4     2.64  31.4  31.0 -0.0537  8.93 0.0640  85.9  79.5  91.9  2.34 
#  6 GY    G5     2.54  30.6  28.8 -0.119   7.82 0.0480  82.7  82.2  82.4  1.84 
#  7 GY    G6     2.53  29.7  27.8 -0.147   7.34 0.0468  83.0  83.7  81.8  1.81 
#  8 GY    G7     2.74  27.4  28.3 -0.133   7.33 0.122   83.9  77.6  93.4  4.16 
#  9 GY    G8     3.00  30.4  35.1  0.0531 10.8  0.0712  98.8  90.5 107.   2.57 
# 10 GY    G9     2.51  42.4  39.4  0.154  14.7  0.167   68.8  68.9  70.3  5.56 
# # … with 32 more variables: bij <dbl>, Sij <dbl>, R2 <dbl>, ASTAB <dbl>,
# #   ASI <dbl>, ASV <dbl>, AVAMGE <dbl>, DA <dbl>, DZ <dbl>, EV <dbl>, FA <dbl>,
# #   MASI <dbl>, MASV <dbl>, SIPC <dbl>, ZA <dbl>, WAAS <dbl>, WAASB <dbl>,
# #   HMGV <dbl>, RPGV <dbl>, HMRPGV <dbl>, Pi_a <dbl>, Pi_f <dbl>, Pi_u <dbl>,
# #   Gai <dbl>, S1 <dbl>, S2 <dbl>, S3 <dbl>, S6 <dbl>, N1 <dbl>, N2 <dbl>,
# #   N3 <dbl>, N4 <dbl>

Citation

citation("metan")

Please, support this project by citing it in your publications!

  Olivoto, T., and Lúcio, A.D. (2020). metan: an R package for
  multi-environment trial analysis. Methods Ecol Evol. 11:783-789
  doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13384

A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is

  @Article{Olivoto2020,
    author = {Tiago Olivoto and Alessandro Dal'Col L{'{u}}cio},
    title = {metan: an R package for multi-environment trial analysis},
    journal = {Methods in Ecology and Evolution},
    volume = {11},
    number = {6},
    pages = {783-789},
    year = {2020},
    doi = {10.1111/2041-210X.13384},
  }

Getting help

  • If you encounter a clear bug, please file a minimal reproducible example on github

  • Suggestions and criticisms to improve the quality and usability of the package are welcome!

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