Table 3.

Parameter estimates with their units (95% confidence intervals in square brackets) and their meaning for the fitted nonlinear mixed‐effects model of live fuel moisture content (LFMC)

Parameter	Estimate	Meaning
${\mu }_{A_0}$	54.3% [42.5:66.0]	Maximum LFMC ($\widehat{A}$) of grasses in the W site. A varies with plot and therefore a hyperparameter is estimated.
A 1	30.9% [13.5:48.3]	Difference between $\widehat{A}$ of grasses in the E site and $\widehat{A}$ of grasses in W site.
A 2	223.4% [191.9:254.6]	Difference between $\widehat{A}$ of M. spinosum and $\widehat{A}$ of grasses in the W site.
A 3	240.3% [207.1:273.5]	Difference between $\widehat{A}$ of S. filaginoides and $\widehat{A}$ of grasses in the W site.
w 0	29.1% [25.7:32.4]	Minimum LFMC ($\widehat{w}$) of grasses in the W site.
w 1	−20.7% [−25.8: −15.6]	Difference between $\widehat{w}$ of grasses in the E site and $\widehat{w}$ of grasses in the W site.
w 2	31.7% [16.4:47.0]	Difference between $\widehat{w}$ of M. spinosum and $\widehat{w}$ of grasses in the W site.
w 3	26.7% [11.1:42.9]	Difference between $\widehat{w}$ of S. filaginoides and $\widehat{w}$ of grasses in the W site.
m	30.9 days [26.9:35.0]	Day when the LFMC half‐maximum occurs ($\widehat{m}$) in the study area (data suggest one general value for all the leaf types).
s	−16.1 [−20.8: −11.5]	Parameter controlling speed of change ($\widehat{S}$) of the LFMC (data suggest one general value for all the leaf types, the negative value indicates vegetation to be drying during the fire season).
${\sigma }_{\text{base}}$	7.1% [6.0:8.6]	LFMC variability within‐plots (residual standard error) of grass (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{gw}}$) in Site W at the beginning the fire season.
δ 1	0.9 [0.7:1.2]	Ratio between the within‐plots standard error of the LFMC of grasses in Site E (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{ge}}$) and grasses in W site (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{gw}}$)
δ 2	3.2 [2.4:4.0]	Ratio between the within‐plots standard error of the initial LFMC M. spinosum (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{sm}}$) and grasses in W site (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{gw}}$)
δ 3	3.0 [2.4:3.9]	Ratio between the within‐plots standard error of the initial LFMC S. filaginoides (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{ss}}$) and grasses in W site (${\widehat{\sigma }}_{\text{gw}}$)
${\sigma }_{A_0}$	9.4% [3.9:15.8]	Variability among plots (standard deviation) in the maximum LFMC (random effects on A).