Fig. 6

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) provided an analytical framework for understanding the relationships and causal pathways between variables bioclimatic variable, residents and diversity of the ELF community. We defined bioclimatic variables, resident type and diversity of the ELF community as latent variables and tested the correlations between them for both explanatory power (coefficient) and statistical significance (p value) using SEM analysis. In the diagram, the thick arrows indicated the coefficients between the latent variables, and the lines connecting the numeric variables represent the strength of the Spearman correlations. The color scheme in the diagram was chosen such that positive correlations were denoted by black lines and negative correlations by red lines