Box-plots of the 16 indices between populations and among species in the seedling stage.

<p>The rectangle region is the main part of the box-plot. The three upper, middle and lower lines represent the 75th, 50th and 25th percentile value of the variables, respectively. The vertical line in the middle of the box-plot is the tentacles line. The upper and lower ends of the line represent the maximum and minimum values of the variable, respectively, except for single or extreme values. “.”represents the single value, where the variable value exceeds 1.5 times the difference between the 75th percentile and 25th percentile. “*” represents the extreme value, where the variable value exceeds 3 times the difference between the 75th percentile and 25th percentile. Boxplots with different superscript letters (a, b, c) are significantly different (P < 0.05) as determined by Duncan multiple range tests.