Table 1.

Overview of the experimental setup compared to the model set up

	IBC-grass	Experimental study
Monoculture
Plot size	7 × 7 cm2	Ø 7 cm
Nb. of individuals	4	4
Distance between individuals	2 cm (2 grid cells)	No information
Community
Plot size	20 × 20 cm2	17 × 17 cm2
Nb. of individuals	49	49
Distance between individuals	2 cm (2 grid cells)	2.5 × 2.6 cm

Since IBC-grass simulates only rectangular plots, it is not able to represent a circular pot of 7 cm diameters. As the model assumes that plant individuals cannot grow beyond the plot size, we chose to use a greater area (7 × 7 cm) rather than a smaller one (6 × 6 cm) to account for potential shoot growth beyond the pot size. There was no information about the distance between plant individuals within the monoculture setup of the experiment. Therefore, we decided to use a similar distance as in the community set up. This also results in an even distribution of individuals within the plot