A note on testing hypotheses concerning interaction with special reference to a graphical presentation in the space of canonical variates

Results of ecological studies that involve the use of multivariate analysis of variance techniques for testing various hypotheses, interesting from the point of view of comparing the linear functions of parameters, were considered. For testing the most interesting hypotheses on a variety of interaction effects and on contrasts of class means, the application of a multivariate test statistic is recommended. Canonical variate analysis is used for graphical presentation of the results of multidimensional experiments. In this paper it is shown how a generalized form of canonical variate analysis can be useful to reveal which parametric functions of a multivariate analysis of variance model are responsible for rejecting the linear hypothesis. As an example, an analysis was made of an ecological study of trace element accumulation in plants of Italian ryegrass as a method of biomonitoring of air pollution.