Is it possible to do discriminant analysis with random effects? Is there an R package for this?
Context:
I have habitat use data for two species of frogs from radio telemetry, but nested within 'species' the data is for individuals with highly autocorrelated data.
For example, I have ~280 relocations for species 1, with a mean of 20 relocations per individual, and ~ 210 relocations for species 2, with a mean of 13 relocations per animal. Relocations per animal are highly autocorrelated. At each relocation I collected structural habitat data, and I would like to identify which parameters are most strongly identified with each species.
My preference is to have this autocorrelation accounted for in the analysis, but my alternatives with DA, I think, are to:
- Use mean values for each individual, however then I would be breaking assumptions of sample size as I would have fewer samples than variables (therefore not a viable alternative); or
- Cut relocations from individuals with lots of data points.
I've done some searching through CranR, docs, etc, but haven't had much success. The MASS package does discriminant analysis and random effects, but RE in DA? I'd be grateful to be pointed in the right direction (or told that I'm completely out to lunch!)