Table 1. The general linear models (GLMs) that explained the greatest percentages of between-site variance in each plant community metric.

Plant community metric	Phase of plant growth cycle	F	P	R2(adj)	Equation
Plant biomass	Growth	–	–	–	n/a
	Peak	8.89	0.008	28.3%	=  (713.00 (±197.80) + (−8.56 (±1.04) · Shade)
	Recession	5.92	0.011	34.1%	= 498.44 (±94.91) + (−1.87 (±0.59) · SwanBD) + (−9.47 (±3.76) · Shade)
Plant cover	Growth	–	–	–	n/a
	Peak	44.58	<0.001	91.6%	=  (−11.32 (±4.41) · SwanBD) + (1.84 (±2.73) · Temp) + (6.97 (±2.14) · Dist) + (0.78 (±0.31) · (SwanBD · Temp)) + (−0.46 (±0.15) · (Temp · Dist))
	Recession	14.12	<0.001	58.0%	= 65.29 (±10.61) + (−0.18 (0.04) · SwanBD) + (−1.01 (±0.24) · Shade)
R. pseudofluitans flowering	–	5.74	0.028	20.0%	= 47.27 (±8.99) + (−0.21 (±0.09) · SwanBD)
R. pseudofluitans dominance	Growth	–	–	–	n/a
	Peak	4.14	0.024	33.1%	= 3526.86 (±1262.91) + (−234.48 (±87.65) · Temp) + (−31.23 (±10.82) · Dist) + (2.12 (±0.75) · (Temp · Dist))
	Recession	7.46	0.002	50.5%	= 4694.43 (±1350.60) + (−314.00 (±93.36) · Temp) + (−42.61 (±11.68) · Dist) + (2.89 (±0.81) · (Temp · Dist))
Plant species richness	Growth	–	–	–	n/a
	Peak	5.35	0.010	40.7%	=  −220.61 (±100.92) + (14.95 (±7.00) · Temp) + (2.00 (±0.87) · Dist) + (−0.13 (±0.06) · (Temp · Dist))
	Recession	238.97	<0.001	92.2%	= 0.05 (±0.01) · Dist
Plant species evenness	Growth	–	–	–	n/a
	Peak	6.00	0.025	20.8%	= 0.30 (±0.07) + (0.002 (±0.001) · SwanBD)
	Recession	5.19	0.011	39.8%	=  −47.33 (±13.83) + (3.27 (±0.96) · Temp) + (0.43 (±0.12) · Dist) + (−0.03 (±0.01) · (Temp · Dist))

The relevant mean (± SE) parameter values for swan biomass density (SwanBD), shading (Shade), water temperature (Temp) and distance downstream of source (Dist), are given for each equation; n/a indicates that no statistically significant model was detected.