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Heatmap:
This table correlates the exact number of chemical to each bin within the heatmap. From what we can see here there isn't a really strong correlation between the plants phylogeny and their chemical production. But, further analysis needs to be done.
ANOVA anlyses
Table 1: ANOVA test based on order
This table looks at the results of the ANOVA analysis based on order. In this case, it determines whether there is a statistically significant difference between the variance within orders and the variance between orders. If significance is shown, that would mean there is less variance within orders compared to between orders, which would support my hypothesis. Here, the chemicals highlighted in dark blue show significance for this test. One thing to note is that there is limited and not limited. Not limited includes every order while limited only includes orders with more than one species collected.
This table is looking into the grouping by family. What is intersting here is that while the Table 1 ANOVA test only had 1 chemical showing significance for limited, this test showed two chemicals with significance. Additionally, running this test based on family can be challenging because some families are within the same order. Meaning that if chemical production is a phylogenetic trait, then there could be a closer correlation between those two familes, causing less varience between them.
Table 2: ANOVA test based on Family
Table 3: ANOVA test within two orders
This last table looks into two specific orders: Lamiales and Myrtales. This table is really intersting because Lamiales shows a lot of signficance with 5/7 chemicals being statistcally signficant. But Myrtales didn't show any signficance at all. This is the opposite trend seen within these orders on the heatmap.
Overall, this leaves us with inconclusive results. While there were some findings that supported the hypothesis, others did not. From this, there is a great deal of opportunity for further research.
To begin, it would be fascinating to collect samples strategically based on phylogeny and then organize them into a well-structured dataset. This could allow for more effective analysis. Additionally, it would be valuable to further investigate the phylogenetic relationships between the plants and develop a way to quantify those relationships. Doing so would make it possible to compare how closely related plants are to how similar their chemical profiles are.
Lastly, there is not enough evidence to conclude that phylogeny alone is the primary factor influencing chemical production. This means it would also be important to investigate other factors, such as environmental conditions, to better understand what drives patterns of chemical production across the plant kingdom.
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