Model	Details	df	AIC	Δ AIC
1	Abundance ~ 1	2	9201.28	538.04
2	Abundance ~ Soil type	5	9201.83	538.58
3	Abundance ~ Habitat	8	8804.52	141.28
4	Abundance ~ Season	3	9201.79	538.55
5	Abundance ~ GCv	3	8869.89	206.65
6	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season	9	8800.75	137.51
7	Abundance ~ Habitat + GCv	9	8716.94	53.69
8	Abundance ~ GCv + Herbs	4	8865.80	202.56
9	Abundance~ Habitat + Season + GCv	10	8714.52	51.27
10	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + GCv + Soil type	13	8664.87	1.63
11	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + GCv + Soil type + BD	14	8663.24	0.00
12	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + GCv + Soil type + BD + Herbs	14	8667.82	4.58
13	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + Habitat*Season + GCv + Soil type	19	8669.38	6.14
14	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + Habitat*Season + GCv + Soil type + BD + Herbs	20	8669.05	5.81
15	Abundance ~ Habitat + Season + Habitat*Season + GCv	16	8717.81	54.57

Note: Model with the lowest AIC (shown in bold) is the one that better describes and fits our data. For every model; the number of parameters (df), AIC and delta ΔAIC are given. ΔAIC is the difference in AIC between the current model and the best model.

Abbreviations: GCv, ground cover; BD, bulk density; Herbs, herb density.

Bold indicates: significant at 0***.