Hello, I have some trouble using step() and stepAIC() functions. I'm predicting recruitment against several factors for different plant species using a negative binomial glm.
Sometimes, summary(step(model)) or summary(stepAIC(model) does not select the best model (lowest AIC) but just stops before. For some species, step() works and stepAIC don't and in others, it's the opposite. The model is model=glm.nb(sdg.cens1 ~ seed.cens1 + log(in.lit+1) + log(trans.dir+1)+ log(trans.dif+1) + slope +log(pH+1) + log(CN+1) + site, data=data) For example, for species A using stepAIC() I get: Call: glm.nb(formula = tot.rec ~ slope + log(pH + 1) + log(CN + 1), data = data, init.theta = 0.0575099635396228, link = log) Deviance Residuals: Min 1Q Median 3Q Max -7.591e-01 -3.688e-01 -1.828e-01 -8.494e-08 1.520e+00 Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|) (Intercept) 110.729 47.643 2.324 0.02012 * slope2 -34.202 972079.452 -3.52e-05 0.99997 slope3 -1.423 1.371 -1.038 0.29928 log(pH + 1) -51.244 19.544 -2.622 0.00874 ** log(CN + 1) -9.132 6.906 -1.322 0.18602 --- Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 (Dispersion parameter for Negative Binomial(0.0575) family taken to be 1) Null deviance: 34.068 on 156 degrees of freedom Residual deviance: 19.602 on 152 degrees of freedom AIC: 90.357 But using step() I get: Step: AIC= 138.4 tot.rec ~ log(mean.lit.rec + 1) + log(trans.dir + 1) + log(trans.dif + 1) + slope + log(pH + 1) + log(CN + 1) + site Call: glm.nb(formula = tot.rec ~ log(mean.lit.rec + 1) + log(trans.dir + 1) + log(trans.dif + 1) + slope + log(pH + 1) + log(CN + 1) + site, data = data, init.theta = 74070.0501196965, link = log) Deviance Residuals: Min 1Q Median 3Q Max -2.3110 -0.5450 -0.3179 0.0000 3.8755 Coefficients: Estimate Std. Error z value Pr(>|z|) (Intercept) 6.809e+01 1.905e+01 3.574 0.000351 *** log(mean.lit.rec + 1) -1.238e+00 1.083e+00 -1.143 0.252987 log(trans.dir + 1) 2.069e-01 1.227e+00 0.169 0.866120 log(trans.dif + 1) -6.978e-01 1.578e+00 -0.442 0.658327 slope2 -3.730e+01 1.022e+07 -3.65e-06 0.999997 slope3 -9.195e-01 6.269e-01 -1.467 0.142488 log(pH + 1) -3.152e+01 6.918e+00 -4.556 5.22e-06 *** log(CN + 1) -5.053e+00 3.404e+00 -1.485 0.137643 site1 1.379e-01 4.618e-01 0.299 0.765278 --- Signif. codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1 (Dispersion parameter for Negative Binomial(91071.54) family taken to be 1) Null deviance: 145.586 on 156 degrees of freedom Residual deviance: 99.166 on 148 degrees of freedom AIC: 140.40 However, for species B I get the opposite, it works with step() but not with stepAIC(). Using step() AIC =414.28 and using stepAIC(), AIC=424.15 and the results are totally different. I would appreciate any help!! Thank you Natalia Norden ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html