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13 results for “root foraging”
Raw data used in Kumar et al. 2020: Barley shoot biomass responds strongly to N:P stoichiometry and intraspecific competition, whereas roots only alter their foraging
<p>Raw data used in Kumar et al. 2020: Barley shoot biomass responds strongly to N:P stoichiometry and intraspecific competition, whereas roots only alter their foraging</p>
Data from: Local soil legacy effects in a multi-species grassland community are underlain by root foraging and soil nutrient availability
<p>1. Plant soil legacies consisting of species-specific microbial communities are hypothesized to play a critical, structuring role in plant species co-existence processes. Plant species are thought to perform worse on soil conditioned by the same species compared to soil of other species, which serves as a self-limitation mechanism and averts mono-dominance of strong competitors. Here we test in a multi-species community setting, whether root colonisation and resource utilisation of soil patches with distinct soil legacies, are consistent with this hypothesis. 2. We grew eight grassland species together in an outdoor mesocosm setup in unconditioned soil and created soil patches in these communities conditioned by one of four plant species, or a soil mixture of all four. During two subsequent growing seasons, we tested the effect of these conditioned soil patches on belowground root colonisation into the patches of each surrounding plant species using a novel sequencing based approach. In addition, we tested the effect of soil conditioning on local root functioning by injecting tracers into the soil patches and measuring the recovery in aboveground biomass. 3. Against expectations, plant species did not place less roots in own soil patches compared to foreign soil patches, nor did species take up less tracer from own compared to foreign soil patches. Using structural equation modelling, we found that tracer uptake of the plant species was to a varying degree explained by root densities in the various soil patches and by differing soil nutrient availability of the soil patches. We conclude that soil legacy effects are inextricably connected to soil nutrient availability, which needs to be taken into account in plant-soil feedback research to understand the processes that shape plant communities. 4. Synthesis. We found that soil legacy effects in complex, multi-species semi-field conditions did not match expectations based on theory and experiments in controlled conditions. Among the many complicating factors that may modify or even overrule soil legacy effects in semi-field settings, we identified soil nutrient availability as a critical force that may, together with soil biota, shape plant species co-existence processes.</p>
Interspecific differences in root foraging precision cannot be directly inferred from species' mycorrhizal status or fine root economics
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>Nutrient acquisition in plants can be represented by a suite of intercorrelated root traits such as root diameter, nitrogen content, root tissue density, and specific root length. However, it is unclear how a plant's ability to precisely forage for nutrients in a heterogeneous soil environment (i.e., the precision of placing roots into nutrient-rich areas) relates to these traits. Mycorrhizal symbiosis also affects the relationship between the fine root traits and root foraging precision because fungal hyphae may be used for foraging instead of roots. Hypotheses matching high root foraging precision with low mycorrhizal colonization or "fast" acquisitive strategies of plants have been raised based either on data from tree species or a limited number of herbaceous species. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>To test these hypotheses, we compiled data quantifying the experimentally measured degree to which root biomass responded to patchy substrate nutrient concentrations (i.e., root foraging precision) for 123 herbaceous grassland species using a partial meta-analysis. We tested root foraging precision relationship with root traits involved in nutrient acquisition and mycorrhizal symbiosis (root diameter, specific root length, root tissue density, root tissue nitrogen content, and mycorrhizal colonization). The root foraging precision data came from four different pot experiments, and the trait data were extracted from publicly available trait databases. We used a phylogenetically informed approach in order to detect the degree of conservation of the relationships. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span>We found that root foraging precision was not significantly correlated with other fine root traits and mycorrhizal colonization. Thus, it appears unrelated to the main dimensions of the nutrient acquisition space of herbaceous species, namely acquisitive-conservative strategy and outsourcing of acquisition to the fungi. Also, we found only a very weak phylogenetic signal in root foraging precision of 123 species. Our results suggest that root foraging precision constitutes another distinct, evolutionarily independent dimension in herbaceous species' trait space.</span></p>
Root foraging strategies and niche segregation of three Mediterranean shrub species
<p>Shrubs are usually adapted to stressful environments in which soil resources are limited, and thus, roots are fundamental for their biological success. However, root measures are challenging to collect, especially in field conditions and at the individual level. For this study, we collected data on the three-dimensional distribution of fine root biomass of twenty-three individuals belonging to three shrub species in a Mediterranean shrubland in Central Spain: gum rockrose (<em>Cistus ladanifer</em> L.), rosemary (<em>Salvia rosmarinus</em> Schleid.), and hairy-fruited broom (<em>Cytisus striatus</em> [Hill] Rothm). Our goal was to determine the soil-foraging strategies adopted by the plants. We hypothesized that plants would show stabilizing niche differences explaining the high plant biodiversity characteristic of Mediterranean shrublands and that they would follow the game theory model's prediction of exploitative segregation of roots behaving territorially but also over-proliferating roots close to their stem and engaging in a root tragedy of the commons. We found that two-thirds to three-fourths of the biomass was belowground, and the system's productivity was roughly 500-600 g C m-2 y-1. Only rosemary plants competed with neighbors following the exploitative segregation predictions. Broom plants had the shallowest and most widespread root systems but significantly reduced their root range toward competing neighbors. Gum rockrose presented deep, narrow root systems avoiding extensive overlap with neighbors but did not appear to respond to competitive pressure levels. Shrubs appeared to stratify their roots at different soil depths, supporting the niche segregation hypothesis.</p>
Interspecific differences in root foraging precision cannot be directly inferred from species' mycorrhizal status or fine root economics
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Root foraging strategies and niche segregation of three Mediterranean shrub species
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Data from: Local soil legacy effects in a multi-species grassland community are underlain by root foraging and soil nutrient availability
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Data from: Root foraging performance and life-history traits
Plants use their roots to forage for nutrients in heterogeneous soil environments, but different plant species vastly differ in the intensity of foraging they perform. This diversity suggests the existence of constraints on foraging at the species level. We therefore examined the relationships between the intensity of root foraging and plant body traits across species in order to estimate the degree of coordination between plant body traits and root foraging as a form of plant behavior. We cultivated 37 perennial herbaceous Central European species from open terrestrial habitats in pots with three different spatial gradients of nutrient availability (steep, shallow and no gradient). We assessed the intensity of foraging as differences in root placement inside pots with and without a spatial gradient of resource supply. For the same set of species, we retrieved data about body traits from available databases: maximum height at maturity, mean area of leaf, specific leaf area, shoot lifespan, ability to self-propagate clonally, maximal lateral spread (in clonal plants only), realized vegetative growth in cultivation and realized seed regeneration in cultivation. Clonal plants and plants with extensive vegetative growth showed considerably weaker foraging than their non-clonal or slow-growing counterparts. There was no phylogenetic signal in the amount of expressed root foraging intensity. Since clonal plants foraged less than non-clonals and foraging intensity did not seem to be correlated with species phylogeny, we hypothesize that clonal growth itself (i.e. the ability to develop at least partly self-sustaining ramets) may be an answer to soil heterogeneity. Whereas unitary plants use roots as organs specialized for both resource acquisition and transport to overcome spatial heterogeneity in resource supply, clonal plants separate these two functions. Becoming a clonal plant allows higher specialization at the organ level, since a typical clonal plant can be viewed as a network of self-sustainable harvesting units connected together with specialized high-throughput connection organs. This may be an effective alternative for coping with spatial heterogeneity in resource availability.
Root allocation and foraging precision in heterogeneous soils
<p>Root growth patterns respond to small-scale resource heterogeneity and the presence of roots of neighboring plants, but how a plant integrates its responses to these cues is not well understood. In the presence of neighbors, plants may shift allocation to roots as a consequence of plant size and root:shoot allometry, as a response to resource depletion by neighbors, or through a direct response to neighbor presence. The same response pathways also have the potential to alter proliferation in resource-rich patches in soil.</p> <p>Four species of grassland plants were grown in the greenhouse as single plants, monocultures, and mixtures. Root length allocation as a function of shoot mass was examined for background soil and fertilized patches. Plants grown with same-species neighbors followed the same allometric trajectory as single plants for root length in background soil, so any change in root allocation was due only to reduced plant size. Root proliferation in patches declined with neighbors, consistent with a response to resource depletion. Mixtures overproduced roots in both background soil and in patches, relative to plants of the same size in monocultures.</p>
Data for: Effects of nutrient heterogeneity on root foraging and plant growth at the individual and community level
<p>Plants can respond to heterogeneous nutrient distribution through selective root placement to enhance nutrient uptake. It is believed that nutrient heterogeneity can better promote plant growth than homogeneous nutrient distribution, but comprehensive analyses are relatively few. We meta-analyzed the data from 131 comparative studies and synthesized the effects of nutrient heterogeneity on root foraging and plant growth, and examined the roles of patch scale and contrast. Plant responses to nutrient heterogeneity was phylogenetically conserved, and the response in shoot biomass was more correlated with the response in root biomass than with root foraging precision. Root precision depended on competition status, and plants in interspecific competition had lower precision. Community-level responses to nutrient heterogeneity were more significant than individual-level responses. With increasing patch scale, root foraging precision declined, while overall shoot and root responses of individuals increased. Moderate patch contrast significantly increased root responses compared to low and high patch contrast. Our results indicate that plants optimize nutrient acquisition from heterogeneous patches mainly through increasing root growth rate and exploit nutrients more effectively at the community than individual level. Patch attribute mediation of nutrient heterogeneity effects on plants may help design fertilization practices to promote productivity and conserve biodiversity. </p>
Data for: Effects of nutrient heterogeneity on root foraging and plant growth at the individual and community level
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Data from: Root foraging performance and life-history traits
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Root allocation and foraging precision in heterogeneous soils
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