Table 4.

P-values for fixed effects (soil condition and ontogenetic stage—OS) of linear mixed models (REML) and their interactions on functional traits of four North-American temperate forest species (NF dataset).

		Diameter			SRLc	Branching intensity		SLA
		Dc	D3	D1		BIc	BI3
Abies balsamea	Soil	0.03*	0.07•	<0.01**	0.95	0.67	0.17	0.47
	OS	0.12	0.30	0.03*	0.01*	0.58	0.44	<0.01**
	Soil+OS	0.72	0.43	0.20	0.71	0.98	0.96	0.34
Thuja occidentalis	Soil	0.09•	0.02*	0.03*	0.22	0.77	0.60	0.66
	OS	0.09•	0.02*	<0.01**	0.72	0.21	0.71	<0.01**
	Soil+OS	0.71	0.95	0.67	0.51	0.66	0.59	0.42
Acer rubrum	Soil	0.13	0.76	0.14	0.55	0.11	0.10	0.09•
	OS	0.04*	0.04*	<0.01**	0.02*	0.63	0.13	<0.01**
	Soil+OS	0.99	0.33	0.53	0.75	0.33	0.47	0.04*
Betula papyrifera1	Soil	0.15	0.54	0.10	0.15	0.50	0.65	0.77

Traits include belowground specific root length (SRL), diameter (D) and branching intensity (BI) as well as aboveground specific leaf area (SLA). Fine root traits were measured on roots <2 mm (subscript “c”), first three root orders (subscript “3”) or first order roots only (subscript “1”).

Significant effects are annotated as

^**P < 0.01,

^*P < 0.05, and

^•P < 0.1.

¹No B. papyrifera juveniles were found in the NF plots.