Exploratory analysis of biological communities and their environmental factors requires specialized tools to identify associations among variables and generate hypotheses about their causal relationships. Despite the ubiquity of multivariate data in ecology, the visualization and interpretation of such data can be challenging. This study introduces the application of parallel coordinates to ecologists, illustrating the utility of this tool to visualize and explore different types of multivariate data. We demonstrate this tool with two case studies in Canada to (i) explore water-quality associations with benthic macroinvertebrate indicators of stream condition in the St. Lawrence drainage basin, and (ii) identify environmental conditions that contribute to invasive zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) proliferation across inland lakes of Ontario. We offer a novel demonstration of how parallel coordinates provide a practical alternative to current tools in the ecologist's toolbox for visualizing and exploring multivariate data, identifying hypotheses about causal relationships, and communicating science via interactive, web-based applications.

对生物群落及其环境因素的探索性分析需要专门的工具来识别变量之间的关联并生成关于其因果关系的假设。尽管生态学中的多元数据无处不在，但此类数据的可视化和解释可能具有挑战性。本研究向生态学家介绍了平行坐标的应用，说明了该工具在可视化和探索不同类型的多元数据方面的效用。我们通过在加拿大的两个案例研究展示了这个工具，以 (i) 探索水质与圣劳伦斯流域河流状况的底栖大型无脊椎动物指标的关联，以及 (ii) 确定有助于入侵斑马贻贝 ( Dreissena polymorpha ) 的环境条件) 在安大略省的内陆湖泊中扩散。我们提供了一个新颖的演示，展示了平行坐标如何为生态学家工具箱中的当前工具提供实用的替代方案，用于可视化和探索多元数据、识别关于因果关系的假设以及通过基于 Web 的交互式应用程序交流科学。