Data from: Biomass partitioning of plants under soil pollution stress

<p><span>Polluted sites are ubiquitous worldwide but how plant partition their biomass between different organs in this context is unclear. </span><span>Here, we identified three possible drivers of biomass partitioning in our controlled study along pollution gradients: plant size reduction (pollution effect) combined with allometric scaling between organs; early deficit in root surfaces (pollution effect) inducing a decreased water uptake; increased biomass allocation to roots to compensate for lower soil resource acquisition consistent with the optimal partitioning theory (plant response). A complementary meta-analysis showed variation in biomass </span><span>partitioning</span><span> across published studies, with g</span><span>rass and woody species having distinct modifications of their root: shoot ratio. However, the modelling of biomass partitioning drivers showed that</span> <span>single harvest experiments performed in previous studies prevent identifying the main drivers at stake.</span> <span>The proposed distinction between pollution effects and plant response will help to improve our knowledge of plant allocation strategies in the context of pollution.</span></p>