Non-destructive measurement of wheat roots in large undisturbed and repacked clay soil cores

Meyer, WS; Barrs, H. D.

doi:10.1007/bf02139628

Cited by 36 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The ease with which minirhizotron images can be collected on videotape or other storage media belies the difficulty in extracting meaningful data from them. Data have commonly been transferred from still photographs or videotape by counting root intersections with grids or lines located on the minirhizotron surface or a projection screen (Bragg et al, 1983;Buckland et al, 1993;Gregory, 1979;Keng, 1988;Majdi et al, 1992;Meyer and Barfs, 1985;Sanders and Brown, 1978;Upchurch and Ritchie, 1983;Volkrnar, 1993;Vos and Groenwald, 1983). Often, these counts are subsequently converted to root length using Newman's line intercept method (Newman, 1966;Tennant, 1975) or a similar procedure.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitations Of The Minirhizotron Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of minirhizotrons to understand root function in forests and other natural ecosystems

1996

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Minirhizotrons have proved useful to understand the dynamics and function of fine roots. However, they have been used comparatively infrequently in forests and other natural plant communities. Several factors have contributed to this situation, including anomalous root distributions along the minirhizotron surface and the difficulty of extracting data from minirhizotron images. Technical and methodological advances have ameliorated some of these difficulties, and minirhizotrons have considerable potential to address some questions of long standing interest. These questions include more fully understanding the role of roots in carbon and nutrient cycling, rates of root decomposition, responses to resource availability and the functional significance of interactions between plant roots and soil organisms. Maximizing the potential for minirhizotrons to help us better understand the functional importance of fine roots in natural plant communities depends upon using them to answer only those questions appropriate to both their inherent strengths and limitations.

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Section: Strengths and Limitations Of The Minirhizotron Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applications of minirhizotrons to understand root function in forests and other natural ecosystems

1996

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“…To examine root development, eight, 0.8 m long, 25 mm o.d., clear acrylic tubes were installed into one side of each of LI and L2 at an approximate 25 ~ angle to the east-west crop row direction, following the technique of Meyer and Barrs (1985). Tubes were installed as pairs at 0.65 m (diagonally sloped upward to 0.35 m) and horizontally at 0.65, 0.75, and 0.9m below the soil surface.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of soil type on soybean crop water use in weighing lysimeters

et al. 1990

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Accurate estimation of crop evaporation from a range of soil types is fundamental to the continued improvement of irrigation management. In this experiment soybean crop evaporation was measured using two weighing lysimeters, one with an undisturbed block of Hanwood loam (L1), the other with undisturbed Mundiwa clay loam (L2). Although both soils have clay profiles the Hanwood loam was much more freely draining. A fresh water-table (EC =0.01 S m-1) was maintained 1 m below the soil surface of each lysimeter after 18 days from sowing (DFS). The crop (vat. Chaffey) was sown on 18 November 1985 both in and around the lysimeters and was harvested 136 days later. Early crop growth was slower in L2 but growth stages after 60 DFS were similar to L1. Estimated leaf area indices exceeded 3 about 51 and 56 DFS for L1 and L2 respectively and were both greater than 9 at 90 DFS. The crop was well watered until at least 110 DFS. However daily rates of evaporation (E) from LI noticeably exceeded those of L2 beginning around 50 DFS and increased to 30% greater for the period 70 to 1 | 5 DFS. This difference was not due to incorrect calibration. Plant water status measurements were generally similar although covered leaf water potential and foliage temperature values indicated that plants on L1 were less well hydrated than on L2. The causes of the E difference are not known, but it was observed that plants in L2 were about 0.1 m shorter than the surrounding plants which were similar in stature to those in L1. It was speculated that this difference in height created a shelter effect which reduced the net radiant energy absorbed by the canopy at low sun angles and reduced the wind speed controlling the turbulent exchange of water vapour. This study highlights the lack of understanding that exists about the effect that small discon-* Visiting Scientist: present address: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station,

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“…A formal proof is obtained from results of Kendall and Moran (1963), Melhuish and Lang (1968), Meyer and Barrs (1985) and Horgan et al (1993). Upchurch and Ritchie (1983) developed an equivalent equation using an intuitive argument.…”

Section: Conversion To R L Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, R L D in a cube of soil may be estimated by counting the number of roots that intersect cube faces (Lang, 1972;Lang and Melhuish, 1970;Melhuish and Lang, 1968). Meyer and Barrs (1985) state without proof that the method is applicable to counts of root intersections with lines drawn on a minirhizotron. However, to apply that approach to minirhizotron studies, it is preferable to count the number of root intersections with the tube (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A method for counting roots observed in minirhizotrons and their theoretical conversion to root length density

et al. 1993

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A method for counting root intersections with observation tubes (mini-or micro-rhizotrons) is proposed that allows a theoretical conversion of root counts to estimated root length density and which is robust to the effects of tracking along the tubes. A field test showed that the method agreed well with measured root length densities in cores for wild cherry roots but not for roots of pasture species. The circumstances in which the method might be expected to perform well are discussed. Analysis of data from a field trial revealed that root counts were not uniformly distributed around the circumference of the observation tube. Implications for the design of such trials are noted.

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Non-destructive measurement of wheat roots in large undisturbed and repacked clay soil cores

Cited by 36 publications

References 10 publications

Applications of minirhizotrons to understand root function in forests and other natural ecosystems

Applications of minirhizotrons to understand root function in forests and other natural ecosystems

Effects of soil type on soybean crop water use in weighing lysimeters

A method for counting roots observed in minirhizotrons and their theoretical conversion to root length density

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