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Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild

The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate...

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Autores principales: Sinacore, Katherine, Hall, Jefferson Scott, Potvin, Catherine, Royo, Alejandro A., Ducey, Mark J., Ashton, Mark S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29023553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185934
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author Sinacore, Katherine
Hall, Jefferson Scott
Potvin, Catherine
Royo, Alejandro A.
Ducey, Mark J.
Ashton, Mark S.
author_facet Sinacore, Katherine
Hall, Jefferson Scott
Potvin, Catherine
Royo, Alejandro A.
Ducey, Mark J.
Ashton, Mark S.
author_sort Sinacore, Katherine
collection PubMed
description The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO(2) emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of allometric regression models do not consider the root system nor do these equations provide detail on the architecture and shape of different species. The root system is a vital piece toward understanding the hidden form and function roots play in carbon accumulation, nutrient and plant water uptake, and groundwater infiltration. Work that estimates C in forests as well as models that are used to better understand the hydrologic function of trees need better characterization of tree roots. We harvested 40 trees of six different species, including their roots down to 2 mm in diameter and created species-specific and multi-species models to calculate aboveground (AGB), coarse root belowground biomass (BGB), and total biomass (TB). We also explore the relationship between crown structure and root structure. We found that BGB contributes ~27.6% of a tree’s TB, lateral roots extend over 1.25 times the distance of crown extent, root allocation patterns varied among species, and that AGB is a strong predictor of TB. These findings highlight the potential importance of including the root system in C estimates and lend important insights into the function roots play in water cycling.
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spelling pubmed-56382952017-10-20 Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild Sinacore, Katherine Hall, Jefferson Scott Potvin, Catherine Royo, Alejandro A. Ducey, Mark J. Ashton, Mark S. PLoS One Research Article The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO(2) emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of allometric regression models do not consider the root system nor do these equations provide detail on the architecture and shape of different species. The root system is a vital piece toward understanding the hidden form and function roots play in carbon accumulation, nutrient and plant water uptake, and groundwater infiltration. Work that estimates C in forests as well as models that are used to better understand the hydrologic function of trees need better characterization of tree roots. We harvested 40 trees of six different species, including their roots down to 2 mm in diameter and created species-specific and multi-species models to calculate aboveground (AGB), coarse root belowground biomass (BGB), and total biomass (TB). We also explore the relationship between crown structure and root structure. We found that BGB contributes ~27.6% of a tree’s TB, lateral roots extend over 1.25 times the distance of crown extent, root allocation patterns varied among species, and that AGB is a strong predictor of TB. These findings highlight the potential importance of including the root system in C estimates and lend important insights into the function roots play in water cycling. Public Library of Science 2017-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5638295/ /pubmed/29023553 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185934 Text en https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) public domain dedication.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sinacore, Katherine
Hall, Jefferson Scott
Potvin, Catherine
Royo, Alejandro A.
Ducey, Mark J.
Ashton, Mark S.
Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title_full Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title_fullStr Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title_full_unstemmed Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title_short Unearthing the hidden world of roots: Root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
title_sort unearthing the hidden world of roots: root biomass and architecture differ among species within the same guild
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638295/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29023553
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185934
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