Relating vegetation to environmental variables with multi-level data

A (generalised) linear mixed modelis a flexible methodto account for the dependency of plots within the same cluster, through a random effect. The standard linear mixed model: yij = β0 + β1xij + u0j + eij (1) where: xij : plot-level covariate u0j : random intercept for cluster j eij : plot-level residual with assump ons: u0j ∼ N (0, σ2 u0j) eij ∼ N (0, σ2 eij) Accounts for the possible intercorrela on of plots within the same cluster The model should be checked for residual pa erns against the plot-level covariate!