Table 3. Model comparison at the plant level.

A) The lowland and B) the alpine communities. n: number of individuals. LIN: classic linear models; S&F: Smith & Fretwell’s model [6]; L&G: Lescourret & Génard’s model [22]. Bold letters indicate the best model for each model selection criterion. ´Res. Analysis´ indicates the best model as assessed by residual analysis (only when AICc and RRMSE best models differed).

Community	Species	n	AICc			RRMSE			Res. analysis
			LIN	S&F	L&G	LIN	S&F	L&G
A) Lowland	Centaurea jacea	19	188.41	199.11	197.25	0.23	0.32	0.00	LIN
	Fragaria vesca	12	80.03	83.73	103.99	0.30	0.41	0.04	LIN
	Geranium sylvaticum	11	65.32	65.62	62.43	0.27	0.33	0.05
	Geum rivale	15	151.05	152.72	154.08	0.29	0.35	0.01	LIN
	Knautia arvensis	15	178.33	181.58	191.87	0.24	0.30	0.002	LIN
	Linum catharinum	15	16.64	38.64	28.80	0.28	0.64	1.21
	Pilosella pubescens	31	42.38	45.04	46.34	0.32	0.41	0.18	LIN
	Polygala vulgaris	14	42.90	61.43	61.27	0.22	0.49	0.11	LIN
	Potentilla thuringica	15	82.95	78.68	81.69	0.24	0.23	0.03	S&F
	Ranunculus acris	14	95.18	101.64	103.86	0.25	0.36	0.04	LIN
B) Alpine	Astragalus alpinus	15	62.17	67.83	63.41	0.24	0.33	0.08	LIN
	Geranium sylvaticum	15	92.26	101.96	97.17	0.25	0.39	0.03	LIN
	Potentilla crantzii	17	50.42	51.62	47.56	0.21	0.24	0.10
	Saussurea alpina	18	124.87	131.78	130.75	0.31	0.41	0.06	LIN
	Saxifaga aizodes	15	65.17	81.64	72.71	0.30	0.59	0.18	LIN
	Silene acaulis	10	24.10	31.52	29.12	0.31	0.55	0.39
	Veronica alpina	13	29.40	27.67	31.19	0.26	0.28	0.34	LIN
	Veronica fruticans	15	22.12	35.31	26.68	0.30	0.52	0.84