I have conducted an experiment measuring individual sizes as a function of two categorical variables (A and B), each with three levels (1, 2, 3). The combination A3:B3 is a control group. This experiment was conducted across two replicates on separate individuals (i.e. no repeated measures). However, design constraints meant that these replicates were performed across three "blocks", as shown in the table below.
As you can see, the control group appears in all blocks, but the other treatments are split across them, so the design is not fully factorial. I would like to test whether there is an effect on size caused by each variable and their interaction, both relative to each other and the control across all blocks. However, I would also like to test if there is an effect of block within each group, e.g. are A1:B1 individuals different in size in block 1 compared to block 2? Visualising the data suggest that this could be the case.
Using ANOVA in R I have set up a 3-way linear model as follows:
model <- lm(Size ~ A*B*Block)
Anova(model, type="II")
However, for the interactions B:Block and A:B:Block this model returns zero degrees of freedom. I believe this is due to factor level combinations with zero observations, i.e. because not all combinations appear in all blocks. I'm also concerned that I do not explicitly want to test the effect of block as a stand-alone variable, again because not all treatment combinations appear in all blocks (and therefore I'd expect to see differences in sizes across the blocks).
I would like help on how best to construct this model, and also how to run appropriate post-hoc tests. Running TukeyHSD(x=model, conf.level=0.95)
results in a large number of NA
contrasts due to missing factor combinations. How can I better set up these tests so that only comparisons I am interested in are performed?