Short-Term Plant Community Responses to Warming and Defoliation in a Northern Temperate Grassland

Table 1

Stepwise multiple regression models relating plant species diversity, biomass, and community composition, as well as NMS plot scores to measured environmental variables (soil temperature, soil moisture content, light interception, and nitrogen mineralization rate).

Year	Dependent Variable	Model 𝑅^2	Independent variable	Partial 𝑅^2	Beta1	Prob > F
	Species diversity	0.59	Light interception (July)	0.19	0.01	0.09
			Soil moisture content (June)	0.27	0.06	0.02
			𝑁 mineralization (July)	0.13	−0.19	0.08
	Species richness	0.43	Soil moisture content (June)	0.43	0.47	0.006
2006	Shoot biomass	0.28	Light interception (June)	0.28	38.94	0.03
	Root biomass	0.30	𝑁 mineralization (July)	0.30	33.53	0.03
	NMS Axis 1	0.22	Light interception (July)	0.22	0.009	0.07
	NMS Axis 2	0.51	Soil moisture content (June)	0.38	0.11	0.01
			Soil temperature (July)	0.14	0.15	0.08
	Species diversity	0.19	Soil moisture content (July)	0.19	0.05	0.05
	Species richness	0.35	Soil moisture content (July)	0.35	0.72	0.006
	Shoot biomass	0.27	Light interception (July)	0.27	24.19	0.02
	Root biomass	0.59	Light interception (July)	0.35	−246.1	0.006
2007			Soil moisture content (June)	0.24	1090	0.006
	NMS Axis 1	—	None	—	—	—
	NMS Axis 2	0.27	Soil moisture content (June)	0.27	0.11	0.02
	NMS Axis 3	—	None	—	—	—