3.3 Direct and indirect effects on hypocotyl traits
We further used SEM to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of climatic, oceanic, and maternal factors on hypocotyl traits. MAT played the strongest role in directly shaping PC1 (standardized path coefficients, β = 0.75). SAL (−0.22) was the main oceanic factors that directly negatively affected PC1. Tide effects (ALT and AFC) were much weaker than MAT. MAP had no direct effect and AGB had a weak effect on PC1 (Figs. 5A, 5B). All the factors had a weak direct effect on RTD (|β| < 0.15), except for MAP (−0.31). Compared with the effect of climatic factors on PC1, effect of climatic factors was much smaller on RTD (Figs. 5C, 5D). Overall, these variables can explain 64% and 88% of the variations in PC1 and RTD, respectively.