AbstractUnderstanding the relationship between ecological indicators and environmental stressors is difficult. One problem is that the environmental data often consist of a large number of variables. The relationship between ecological data and environmental data is investigated using canonical correlation analysis with Bayesian model averaging used to identify important variables. A set of data from Ohio, U.S.A., is studied. Activation probabilities are used to indicate the important ecological indicators and environmental variables. A plot of model coefficients adjusted by activation probabilities is used to indicate variables that are important to canonical correlation axes. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.