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Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild.

ABSTRACT: The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO2 emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of allometric regression models do not consider the root system nor do these equations provide detail on the architecture and shape of different species. The root system is a vital piece toward understanding the hidden form and function roots play in carbon accumulation, nutrient and plant water uptake, and groundwater infiltration. Work that estimates C in forests as well as models that are used to better understand the hydrologic function of trees need better characterization of tree roots. We harvested 40 trees of six different species, including their roots down to 2 mm in diameter and created species-specific and multi-species models to calculate aboveground (AGB), coarse root belowground biomass (BGB), and total biomass (TB). We also explore the relationship between crown structure and root structure. We found that BGB contributes ~27.6% of a tree's TB, lateral roots extend over 1.25 times the distance of crown extent, root allocation patterns varied among species, and that AGB is a strong predictor of TB. These findings highlight the potential importance of including the root system in C estimates and lend important insights into the function roots play in water cycling.

SUBMITTER: Sinacore K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5638295 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild.

Sinacore Katherine K Sinacore Katherine K Hall Jefferson Scott JS Potvin Catherine C Royo Alejandro A AA Ducey Mark J MJ Ashton Mark S MS

PloS one 20171012 10

The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO2 emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of all ...[more]

PMID: 29023553

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Project description:Background and aimsBiomass partitioning for resource conservation might affect plant allometry, accounting for a substantial amount of unexplained variation in existing plant allometry models. One means of resource conservation is through direct allocation to storage in particular organs. In this study, storage allocation and biomass allometry of deciduous and evergreen tree species from seasonal environments were considered. It was expected that deciduous species would have greater allocation to storage in roots to support leaf regrowth in subsequent growing seasons, and consequently have lower scaling exponents for leaf to root and stem to root partitioning, than evergreen species. It was further expected that changes to root carbohydrate storage and biomass allometry under different soil nutrient supply conditions would be greater for deciduous species than for evergreen species.MethodsRoot carbohydrate storage and organ biomass allometries were compared for juveniles of 20 savanna tree species of different leaf habit (nine evergreen, 11 deciduous) grown in two nutrient treatments for periods of 5 and 20 weeks (total dry mass of individual plants ranged from 0·003 to 258·724 g).Key resultsDeciduous species had greater root non-structural carbohydrate than evergreen species, and lower scaling exponents for leaf to root and stem to root partitioning than evergreen species. Across species, leaf to stem scaling was positively related, and stem to root scaling was negatively related to root carbohydrate concentration. Under lower nutrient supply, trees displayed increased partitioning to non-structural carbohydrate, and to roots and leaves over stems with increasing plant size, but this change did not differ between leaf habits.ConclusionsSubstantial unexplained variation in biomass allometry of woody species may be related to selection for resource conservation against environmental stresses, such as resource seasonality. Further differences in plant allometry could arise due to selection for different types of biomass allocation in response to different environmental stressors (e.g. fire vs. herbivory).

Project description:BackgroundRoot is the principal part of plants to absorb water and nutrient, anchor the plant and affect yield and quality. Non-destructive detection of root traits is difficult to perform due to the hidden nature of the root. Therefore, improved methods to measure roots are necessary to support plant breeding, and optimization of cultivation and management. In this study, we present an adaptive minirhizotron along with installation patterns to focus on micro and local changes in multipoint of pepper roots.ResultsThe method is to improve minirhizotron by reducing its size to a microrhizotron (1.1?×?1.1?×?1.2 cm) and improving installation validity and rationality according to spatial distribution characteristics of Capsicum annuum root system. This adaptive minirhizotron could acquire root image in multipoint, and through image processing, root traits such as root length (including very fine roots or root hairs) and root width could be calculated. In order to install the microrhizotron reasonably and effectively, root system architecture (Capsicum annuum) was reconstructed using a three-dimensional caliper, and were quantified in circumferential distribution, vertical direction and root extension. The results showed that most lateral roots were constrained to 45° in horizontal direction to root initial position; Vertical angles were large, almost perpendicular to the root center line at initial position, and it became smaller when roots began to deepen. Root length density decreased with the increase of distance to plant center. According to Capsicum annuum root system traits, totally 8 installation methods were tested and verified to determine high probability of root interception. Horizontal angle 45° showed much higher interception probability than that of 90°. Vertical angle 45° has slightly higher root interception probability than that of 30°. Installation pattern horizontal angle 45°?+?radius 30 mm?+?vertical angle 45° showed the best performance in root interception with probability of 96.7%, followed by pattern horizontal angle 45°?+?radius 30 mm?+?vertical angle 30°. Comparison experiment showed that when root hair and very fine root were excluded, relative error was 12.1% between microrhizotron and soil sampling in root length, and 15.4% in root diameter. Microrhizotron was able to observe fine roots about 0.1 mm in diameter.ConclusionA new adaptive minirhizotron has been established for nondestructive observation on local and micro changes of roots in multipoint, and its application and installation patterns has been suggested according to root architecture traits. The microrhizotron can be used to study a wide range of research questions focused on quantitative trait locus analysis, root width changes, and root hair growth.

Dataset Information

Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild.

Publications

Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild.

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