Table 6.

Pathway analyses for main factors influencing plant biomass in the four Stipa species (— indicates none).

Species	Independent variable	Correlation coefficient	Direct path coefficient	Indirect path coefficient
				LA	SLA	R/S	Total
S. baicalensis	LA	0.283	0.276	—	−0.070	0.077	0.007
	SLA	−0.065	−0.335	0.058	—	0.213	0.270
	R/S	0.815	0.872	0.024	−0.082	—	0.057
S. grandis	LA	0.623	0.898	—	−0.286	0.010	0.276
	SLA	−0.196	−0.735	0.349	—	0.190	0.540
	R/S	0.183	0.464	0.020	−0.301	—	0.282
S. breviflora	LA	0.339	0.779	—	−0.550	0.107	0.443
	SLA	−0.212	−0.890	0.481	—	0.188	0.670
	R/S	0.541	0.667	0.125	−0.251	—	0.126
S. bungeana	LA	0.584	0.819	—	−0.191	−0.044	0.235
	SLA	−0.291	−0.600	0.261	—	0.047	0.309
	R/S	0.339	0.474	−0.075	−0.060	—	0.135