“…), slope angle (inclination), slope aspect, soil pH, plant available N, P, K, AMMT, SOM (%), vegetation projective cover (%) and plant community data (plant species and their frequency of occurrence). In our previous work we found that vegetation cover was reducing exponentially with increasing elevation (Kikvidze et al, 2020), and for statistical analyses we logtransformed cover data assuming a linear dependence of log-transformed cover on elevation. We used correlation analysis and multivariate ordination methods such as non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS; Legendre, Gallagher, 2001), Principal Component Analysis (PCA; Mason, Gunst, 1985), and Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA; Palmer, 1993).…”