Which test - most frequently observed species - chi-square, nonparametric or poisson?

[MangroveJock]

I work for a community group restoring beaches. We've done some preliminary investigation of the vegetation along a shoreline to compare against regional mapping. I have a basic knowledge of statistics but could use some help.

10x100m of shoreline have been sampled to determine dominant species. Within each 100m random point sampling was undertaken along the shoreline. At each observation point the dominant species was recorded (S1, S2, S3 or S4). The data we have is the total number of observations of each species at each shoreline location. The question is - is one species more frequently observed than the other?
For data - see attached.

The data is categorical, has lots of zeros and sample size is uneven.

I've played around with ANOVA & Kruskal-Wallis (using transformed mean proportion data), chi-square goodness of fit (too many zeros). If somebody could point me in the right direction here that would be much appreciated.

Thanks
John

 

[MangroveJock]

Re: Which test - most frequently observed species - chi-square, nonparametric or pois

Hi Bruin,
At each sampling location a number of random observations were made along a point-intercept transect. At each observation point the species present was recorded, the number presented represents the total number of observations of that species along the transect ie. in sampling location 1 there were 25 points with Species 1, 1 with species 2 etc. (Only one species was present at each point). Hope that makes more sense. Thanks