Factor Analysis of Data from an East Devon Heath: A Comparison of Principal Component and Rotated Solutions

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Abstract
Floristic lists from 94 quadrats are presented in the form of a multiple contingency table. In a principal component analysis of the correlation matrix calculated between rows (or columns) of this table the 1st 3 components reflect respectively abundance (or ecological amplitude), soil moisture and base status; the 4th and 5th components cannot be simply interpreted. A rotated solution for 5 factors using Kaiser''s varimax criterion gives 5 axes readily interpretable in ecological terms, corresponding to 5 recognizable vegetation types. The rotated solution appears to be more informative of floristic relationships within the data than the principal component solution.

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