Spatial mapping of ecosystem patterns
To visualize ecosystem patterns, we used GDM transformed predictors to map dissimilarities among modelled combinations of ecosystem properties. Following procedures in Mokany et al. (2022), we used fitted spline functions from our ecosystem model to transform each predictor. Transformed predictors were then used to predict dissimilarity between grid cell pairs, resulting in a multi-dimensional representation of ecological space. To reveal patterns in this space, a principal components analysis was employed to reduce dimensionality. Subsequently, values from the first three principal components were assigned to an RGB palette and plotted simultaneously. The resulting composite map reveals predicted patterns of ecosystem heterogeneity.