Fig. 1

Plant facilitation efficiency (PFE), which indicates the facilitative effects of mature C. stenophylla shrubs on the survival of intraspecific seedlings and saplings, across the four climatic aridity zones and the three grazing intensities. Data are means ± SE (n = 3 per treatment). For a particular growth stage and grazing intensity, different letters (lowercase) indicate significant differences between climate zones, and for a particular growth stage and climate zone, different letters (uppercase) indicate significant differences between grazing intensities (Tukey HSD tests or t tests, P < 0.05). For a particular climate zone and grazing intensity, asterisks indicate significant differences between seedling and sapling stages (t tests, P < 0.05)