Table 3. Results of the general mixed models for the analysis of seedling total dry weight (a) and seedling root/shoot ratio (b) without accounting for SM covariation (left) and accounting for SM covariation (right).

	Without accounting for SM covariation			Accounting for SM covariation
Variable effect	DF or VarComp	F or χ2	P-value	DF or VarComp	F or χ2	P-value
(a) Total seedling dry weight
Fixed factors
Maternal environment (E)	1, 9	45.3	<0.001	1, 9	6.3	0.033
Block (E)a	15, 68	2.1	0.018	15, 68	1.5	0.140
Germination date	1, 1970	157.1	<0.001	1, 1958	246.1	<0.001
SM				1, 1958	832.8	<0.001
SM × E				1, 1958	7.5	0.006
SM × G				9, 1958	3.2	<0.001
Random factors
Genotype of the mother tree (G)	6225±3373	8.5	0.002	0	0.0	0.500
G × E	1068±816	4.9	0.013	162±286	0.0	0.500
Ramet (G × B(E))	2586±563	89.5	<0.001	1245±280	80.3	<0.001
Cone (E × G × B)	1298±198	110.0	<0.001	590±120	47.2	<0.001
Residual	6005±191			4633±148
(b) Seedling root/shoot ratio
Fixed factors
Maternal environment (E)	1, 9	5.5	0.044	1, 9	9.8	<0.001
Block (E)a	15, 68	1.3	0.202	15, 68	1.4	0.194
Germination date	1, 1970	19.9	<0.001	1, 1959	16.5	<0.001
SM				1, 1959	4.4	0.037
SM × E				—a	—	—
SM × G				9, 1959	2.3	0.015
Random factors
Genotype of the mother tree (G)	0.15±0.11	3.2	0.037	0	0.0	0.500
G × E	0	0.0	0.500	0	0.0	0.500
Ramet (G × B(E))	0.21±0.15	2.4	0.061	0.26±0.16	3.6	0.029
Cone (E × G × B)	0.87±0.2	31.5	0.000	0.79±0.20	27.2	<0.001
Residual	8.40±0.27			8.41±0.27

Abbreviations: DF, degrees of freedom; SM, seed mass; VarComp, variance components.

Degrees of freedom (DF) and F-ratios are shown for fixed effects; variance components (VarComp±s.e.) and associated χ² values showing their statistical significance are shown for random factors. Significant (P<0.05) P-values are typed in bold.

^aThe SM × E term was excluded from the model as it was not significant (F_1,1958=0.0, P=0.982) and did not improve the resolution of the model.