Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Solly EF
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6070616 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Solly Emily F EF Brunner Ivano I Helmisaari Heljä-Sisko HS Herzog Claude C Leppälammi-Kujansuu Jaana J Schöning Ingo I Schrumpf Marion M Schweingruber Fritz H FH Trumbore Susan E SE Hagedorn Frank F
Nature communications 20180801 1
Fine roots support the water and nutrient demands of plants and supply carbon to soils. Quantifying turnover times of fine roots is crucial for modeling soil organic matter dynamics and constraining carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. Here we challenge widely used isotope-based estimates suggesting the turnover of fine roots of trees to be as slow as a decade. By recording annual growth rings of roots from woody plant species, we show that mean chronological ages of fine roots vary from <1 to 12 yea ...[more]