Fig. 5
From: Coordination of leaf functional traits under climatic warming in an arid ecosystem

Structural equation modeling (SEM) concerning the effects of climatic warming on key leaf functional traits and their relationships across the 4-year field warming experiment for the four dominant species (A, C. squarrosa; B, S. tianschanica; C, N. pectinate; D, T. terrestris). Solid black and red arrows represent significant positive (black) or negative (red) relationships at P < 0.05 levels, whereas dashed black and red arrows represent no significance (P > 0.05). Values above arrows indicate the standard path coefficients, and their significances at 0.05, 0.01, and 0.001 levels are marked by *, **, and ***, respectively. Percentages on rectangles or ellipses indicate the variance explained by the models. Modification indices were conducted when adding paths would improve the model. The model fit is suitable: A χ2 = 2.29; df = 2; P = 0.27; goodness of fit index (GFI) = 0.98; root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.009; Akaike information criterion (AIC) = 40.59; N = 39. B χ2 = 1.42; df = 2; P = 0.93; GFI = 0.99; RMSEA < 0.001; AIC = 39.42. N = 39. C χ2 = 0.58; df = 2; P = 0.75; GFI = 0.99; RMSEA < 0.001; AIC = 38.58. N = 23. D χ2 = 0.44; df = 2; P = 0.80; GFI = 0.99; RMSEA < 0.001; AIC = 38.44. N = 23