Time series represent a form of directional stochastic process. To emphasize
the directional nature of the process influencing the data, AEM analysis,
which was designed to take trends into account, should be applied to the
non-detrended series. MEM analysis (see scores.listw
) can be applied
to data series that were detrended to remove the directional component as
recommended by Blanchet et al. (2008, 2011) and Legendre & Legendre (2012,
Subsection 14.1.2). Detrended palaeoecological sediment core data, for
example, could be studied by MEM analysis.
No data file needs to be provided to this function. The AEM eigenvectors are
constructed from a matrix E generated from the regular sequence of points
along the series.
A vector of weights w
can be provided, representing the ease of
communication of matter, energy or information among the points. The most
simple form would be the inverse of (d/dmax) where d is the distance between
adjacent nodes and dmax is the maximum distance between adjacent nodes in the
spatial or time series. More general forms of weights may represent the
inverse of landscape resistance to the movement of organisms, propagules,
genes, etc.
If the calculation of Moran's I is requested, the point coordinates are
generated from the point positions along the series.