Note, to potential "duplicate" claimants, there is a similar question posted here. However, 1. that post is actually asking a different question and 2. that question has removed the code in the OP and thus is difficult to follow. Either way, it does not answer my question.
Main Question
I have calculated some monthly averages. I want to find out which season has the strongest value for animal presence.
Do I sum the means of each month for each season
summer = jun average + jul average + aug average
Or do I find the average of those averages?
summer = jun average + jul average + aug average / 3
Which method is correct for finding out the season with the highest and lowest values?
Context to aid answering the question is provided below
Details
Say we have a 4x4 square with 16 cells.
We lay this square on the on a beach and measure the presence of animals in each cell.
Weekly Statistics
We fill in each cell with the following rule
- If a animal is present in a cell, cell value = 1
- if the cell is empty (animal does NOT appear), cell value = 0
This results in a cell like so,
Monthly Totals
We repeat this each week of each month. We add up the weekly quadrats to create month summary, where each cell has a number between 0 and 4.
- 0 = no animal present in any of the weeks
- 1 = animal present in 1/4 of the weeks
- 2 = animal present in 2/4 of the weeks
- 3 = animal present in 3/4 of the weeks
- 4 = animal was present in every week
value count 1 0 2 2 1 3 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 3
Monthly Statistics
sum = sum of count (i.e. 1+4+2+1+0+1: sum of cells...)
mean = sum / # of rows (i.e. # of weeks + 1)
sum mean
jan 10 2
feb 23 4.6
mar 45 9
apr 15 3
Summary Question
Do I sum the averages of each month for each season?
summer = jun average + jul average + aug average
Or do I find the average of those averages?
summer = jun average + jul average + aug average / 3
Which method is correct for finding out the season with the highest and lowest values?
Desired output...a value showing which season generally has more animals. Should I sum the monthly averages or average the monthly averages?
season value
1 autumn 85
2 spring 40
3 summer 62
4 winter 70