Supplement 1. A text file and detailed instructions for implementing the statistical test using mixed model regressions in R.

File List
Shipley.dat

with the following variables:

1. site: a numeric code giving the site from which the observations comes.

2. tree: a numeric code giving the tree from which the observation comes.

3. Lat: the latitude of the site.

4. year: the year in which the observation was taken.

5. Date: the Julian date when the bud burst occurs.

6. DD: the number of degree days when bud burst occurs.

7. Growth: the increase in diameter growth of the tree.

8. Survival: the probabil;ity of survival until the next year (used only for the simulation).

9. Live: a binary value (1 = tree lived the following winter, 0 = tree died the following winter).

Help files/documentation:

Shipley.pdf

Description
The data file is "Shipley.dat" and is a text file that can be imported into R. The documentation file "Shipley.pdf" contains a step-by-step explanation of how to use the nlme and lme4 packages in R to fit mixed-effect models and use the output to implement the inferential test for path models that is described in the Ecology paper.