Root foraging capacity depends on root system architecture and ontogeny in seedlings of three Andean Chenopodium species

Alvarez-Flores, Ricardo; Winkel, Thierry; Nguyen-Thi-Truc, Anh; Joffre, Richard

doi:10.1007/s11104-014-2105-x

Cited by 42 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…In response, resource limitations would induce plant functional adjustment consistent with an improvement of the plants' capacity to acquire the limiting resource (Freschet et al, 2018;Valladares et al, 2006;Van Kleunen & Fischer, 2005). In this study, low water availability induced high RLR and RMF, allowing a better exploration and/or exploitation of deeper soil horizons (Freschet et al, 2015), which is consistent with the root foraging theory (Alvarez-Flores et al, 2014;Ho, Rosas, Brown, & Lynch, 2005). In contrast, SLA, LAR, and LMF decreased significantly in the drought treatment in this study, indicating a smaller leaf area per biomass (Marcelis, Heuvelink, & Goudriaan, 1998;Smedt et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…Drought has developed into a major physiological stressor that influences the distribution, growth, physiological processes, and energy allocation of plants (Franks, 2011). For adaptation in response to drought stress, plants can modify their phenotype and biomass allocation to capture more water and reduce their water loss, thus enabling them to survive in a number of ecological niches (Alvarez-Flores, Winkel, Nguyen-Thi-Truc, & Joffre, 2014). For instance, plants increase their root growth and optimize the biomass partitioning to capture more water via their roots when suffering from water shortage (Munns & Cramer, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Drought affects the coordination of belowground and aboveground resource‐related traits in Solidago canadensis in China

Liu

Guan

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Quantifying patterns of variation and coordination of plant functional traits can help to understand the mechanisms underlying both invasiveness and adaptation of plants. Little is known about the coordinated variations of performance and functional traits of different organs in invasive plants, especially in response to their adaptation to environmental stressors. To identify the responses of the invasive species Solidago canadensis to drought, 180 individuals were randomly collected from 15 populations and 212 ramets were replanted in a greenhouse to investigate both the response and coordination between root and leaf functional traits. Drought significantly decreased plant growth and most of the root and leaf functional traits, that is, root length, surface area, volume and leaf size, number, and mass fraction, except for the root length ratio and root mass fraction. Phenotypic plasticity was higher in root traits than in leaf traits in response to drought, and populations did not differ significantly. The plasticity of most root functional traits, that is, root length (RL), root surface area (RSA), root volume (RV), and root mass fraction (RMF), were significantly positively correlated with biomass between control and drought. However, the opposite was found for leaf functional traits, that is, specific leaf area (SLA), leaf area ratio (LAR), and leaf mass fraction (LMF). Drought enhanced the relationship between root and leaf, that is, 26 pairwise root–leaf traits were significantly correlated under drought, while only 15 pairwise root–leaf traits were significantly correlated under control conditions. Significant correlations were found between biomass and all measured functional traits except for leaf size. RV, root length ratio, RMF, total area of leaves, and LMF responded differently to water availability. These responses enable S. canadensis to cope with drought conditions and may help to explain the reason of the vast ecological amplitude of this species.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drought affects the coordination of belowground and aboveground resource‐related traits in Solidago canadensis in China

Liu

Guan

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Under the condition of low habitat resources, rooting depth is vital for seedling establishment, water and nutrient absorption, and plant survival among different plant species [18,24,48]. The closely positive correlation between rooting depth and physiological parameters in our study on this small xeric tree disclosed that rooting depth play an important role for plants physiological performance during the prolonged extreme drought period in August.…”

Section: The Important Of Rooting Depthsupporting

confidence: 50%

Deepening Rooting Depths Improve Plant Water and Carbon Status of a Xeric Tree during Summer Drought

Zheng

et al. 2019

Forests

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Exploring the effects of drought on trees of different sizes is an important research topic because the size-dependent mortality pattern of the major dominant species significantly affects the structure and function of plant communities. Here we studied the physiological performance and non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) dynamics of a small xeric tree species, Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A.Mey.) of different tree size with varying rooting depth, during summer drought. We measured predawn (Ψ pd ) and midday (Ψ m ) leaf water potential, osmotic potential at saturated turgor (π 100 ), and turgor lost point (Ψ tlp ), stomatal conductance (g s ) at noon, maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) in the morning, and NSCs concentration, from June-September. Our results demonstrated that the summer drought reduces the overall performance of physiological traits of the small young trees more than the larger adult trees. Ψ pd , g s and Fv/Fm dropped larger in the small-diameter groups than the larger diameter groups. Substantial osmotic adjustments were observed in small size individuals (with lower π 100 and Ψ tlp ) to cope with summer drought. Furthermore, mean concentration of NSCs for the leaf and shoot were higher in September than in July in every basal stem diameter classes suggested the leaf and shoot acted as reserve for NSC. However the root NSCs concentrations within each basal stem diameter class exhibited less increase in September than in the July. At the same time, the small young tress had lower root NSCs concentrations than the larger adult tree in both July and September. The contrasting root NSC concentrations across the basal stem diameter classes indicated that the roots of smaller trees may be more vulnerable to carbon starvation under non-lethal summer drought. The significant positive relationship between rooting depth and physiological traits & root NSCs concentration emphasize the importance of rooting depth in determining the seasonal variation of water status, gas exchange and NSCs.

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“…Traits for tissue morphology, architecture and physiology may be even more plastic than biomass allocation (Comas et al 2013). Plastic responses to water availability have been observed for physiological traits such as abscisic acid and proline content (Davies and Bacon 2003) and morphological traits and phene aggregates such as specific root length (Padilla et al 2009(Padilla et al , 2013, rooting depth (Reader et al 1993;Alvarez-Flores et al 2014), root length (Bell and Sultan 1999), root:shoot ratios (Padilla et al 2009) and root surface area (Saidi et al 2010). The adaptive value of trait plasticity for seedling performance under drought is, however, highly dependent on the intensity and duration of drought episodes and interactions with other environmental conditions (Tardieu 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Root growth plasticity to drought in seedlings of perennial grasses

2019

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Aim Root growth strategies may be critical for seeding survival and establishment under dry conditions, but these strategies and their plasticity are little known. We aim to document the ability of young grass seedlings to adjust their root system architecture, root morphology and biomass allocation to roots to promote water uptake and survival under progressive drought. Methods Seedlings growing in columns filled with sand and exposed to drought or well-watered controls were repeatedly harvested for determination of biomass fractions, root length, −architecture and-morphology in a greenhouse experiment. Allometric scaling exponents and standardised major axis regression were used to investigate allocation patterns. Results Young seedlings were able to sustain leaf turgor and functions during eight weeks of progressive drought through phenotypic plasticity of the primary root system producing deeper and simpler roots. Biomass allocation to roots decreased or did not respond, and other components of root morphology showed only moderate plasticity. Conclusion Our results suggest that morphological and architectural plasticity of the primary root system may well be key features for dehydration avoidance and survival in grass seedlings under moderate drought when allocation of biomass to roots and development of secondary roots are constrained.

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Root foraging capacity depends on root system architecture and ontogeny in seedlings of three Andean Chenopodium species

Cited by 42 publications

References 46 publications

Drought affects the coordination of belowground and aboveground resource‐related traits in Solidago canadensis in China

Drought affects the coordination of belowground and aboveground resource‐related traits in Solidago canadensis in China

Deepening Rooting Depths Improve Plant Water and Carbon Status of a Xeric Tree during Summer Drought

Root growth plasticity to drought in seedlings of perennial grasses

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