Using Partial Triadic Analysis for Depicting the Temporal Evolution of Spatial Structures: Assessing Phytoplankton Structure and Succession in a Water Reservoir

Partial triadic analysis is a multiway analysis method that is a well suited statistical tool to get a clear representation of a chronological series of matrices, one for each sample date. It allows the simultaneous principal component analyses of several matrices and permits one to find a spatial structure common to every matrix and to study its temporal stability. Partial triadic analysis begins by searching for an average table called compromise. The compromise table is then analyzed and its reproducibility by each initial table is finally investigated.