Main effects of species, soil moisture and soil composition on the survival rate (living cuttings) and growth performance (n° of sprouts, longest sprouts, shoot biomass, root biomass) after 84 days (three-way ANOVAs; response variables were square-root-transformed to improve the diagnostic plots) and general linear mixed models of the number of sprouts and the longest sprout over time.

<p>Values are F-values. Levels of significance (p) are denoted with *p<0.05, **p<0.01 and ***p<0.001.</p

(a–h) Growth performance over time.

<p>Growth performance over time of the four species investigated under different soil moisture conditions. (a–d): effects on the number of sprouts (means±SE) after 18, 29, 40, 62 and 84 days; (e–h): effects on the longest sprout (means±SE) after 29, 40, 62 and 84 days. Different letters indicate differences (p<0.05) after Tukey’s all-pairwise comparisons.</p

Effects of species and soil moisture.

<p>Effects of species and soil moisture on a) number of living cuttings, b) number of sprouts, c) longest sprout, d) shoot biomass and e) root biomass (means±SE) after 84 days. Different letters indicate Tukey’s HSD between the species (p<0.05).</p

Main effects of species, soil moisture and soil composition on the secondary re-sprouting capacities (number of sprouts and longest sprout) in the 2^nd experiment after 40 days.

<p>Response variables were log-transformed to improve the diagnostic plots. Values are F-values of three-way ANOVAs. Levels of significance (p) are denoted with *p<0.05,**p<0.01 and ***p<0.001.</p

(a,b) Secondary re-sprouting capacities.

<p>Secondary re-sprouting capacities measured as a) number of sprouts and b) longest sprout of the four species after 40 days (means±SE). Different letters indicate Tukey’s HSD between the species (p<0.05). <i>S. humb.</i> – <i>Salix humboldtiana</i>, <i>Populus</i> – <i>Populus</i> spec., <i>S. bab.</i> hyb. – <i>Salix babylonica</i> hybrid, <i>S. x rub</i>. – <i>Salix x rubens</i>.</p