[R] normal distribution

[acovaleda@hotpop.com]

Hi Sirs and Madams.

My question is more statistical than related with the use of R software and I 
hope it will not seems so silly and elemental. I'm analyzing  a set of data 
of some soil organism collected in diferent landscapes, soils taxa, and 
depths. The sample was performed thinking in a factorial structure with four 
factors: Specie, Landscape, Soil and Depth. Because not all the species 
appear in each sample there are so many zeros in the matrix data.

Checking the normal distribution I'm not sure If I must check it in the 
original sample data (without zeros) or in the big matrix with zeros. In the 
first case there is a normal distribution (W = 0,85) but in the second  it is 
not (W = 0,45). In which data must I check distribution?, Can I proceed to 
perform a Parametric ANOVA?.

Thanks