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The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface

The rhizosphere is the zone of soil influenced by a plant root and is critical for plant health and nutrient acquisition. All below ground resources must pass through this dynamic zone prior to their capture by plant roots. However, researching the undisturbed rhizosphere has proved very challenging...

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Autores principales: Helliwell, J. R., Sturrock, C. J., Mairhofer, S., Craigon, J., Ashton, R. W., Miller, A. J., Whalley, W. R., Mooney, S. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5665926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29093533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14904-w
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author Helliwell, J. R.
Sturrock, C. J.
Mairhofer, S.
Craigon, J.
Ashton, R. W.
Miller, A. J.
Whalley, W. R.
Mooney, S. J.
author_facet Helliwell, J. R.
Sturrock, C. J.
Mairhofer, S.
Craigon, J.
Ashton, R. W.
Miller, A. J.
Whalley, W. R.
Mooney, S. J.
author_sort Helliwell, J. R.
collection PubMed
description The rhizosphere is the zone of soil influenced by a plant root and is critical for plant health and nutrient acquisition. All below ground resources must pass through this dynamic zone prior to their capture by plant roots. However, researching the undisturbed rhizosphere has proved very challenging. Here we compare the temporal changes to the intact rhizosphere pore structure during the emergence of a developing root system in different soils. High resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) was used to quantify the impact of root development on soil structural change, at scales relevant to individual micro-pores and aggregates (µm). A comparison of micro-scale structural evolution in homogenously packed soils highlighted the impacts of a penetrating root system in changing the surrounding porous architecture and morphology. Results indicate the structural zone of influence of a root can be more localised than previously reported (µm scale rather than mm scale). With time, growing roots significantly alter the soil physical environment in their immediate vicinity through reducing root-soil contact and crucially increasing porosity at the root-soil interface and not the converse as has often been postulated. This ‘rhizosphere pore structure’ and its impact on associated dynamics are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-56659262017-11-08 The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface Helliwell, J. R. Sturrock, C. J. Mairhofer, S. Craigon, J. Ashton, R. W. Miller, A. J. Whalley, W. R. Mooney, S. J. Sci Rep Article The rhizosphere is the zone of soil influenced by a plant root and is critical for plant health and nutrient acquisition. All below ground resources must pass through this dynamic zone prior to their capture by plant roots. However, researching the undisturbed rhizosphere has proved very challenging. Here we compare the temporal changes to the intact rhizosphere pore structure during the emergence of a developing root system in different soils. High resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) was used to quantify the impact of root development on soil structural change, at scales relevant to individual micro-pores and aggregates (µm). A comparison of micro-scale structural evolution in homogenously packed soils highlighted the impacts of a penetrating root system in changing the surrounding porous architecture and morphology. Results indicate the structural zone of influence of a root can be more localised than previously reported (µm scale rather than mm scale). With time, growing roots significantly alter the soil physical environment in their immediate vicinity through reducing root-soil contact and crucially increasing porosity at the root-soil interface and not the converse as has often been postulated. This ‘rhizosphere pore structure’ and its impact on associated dynamics are discussed. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5665926/ /pubmed/29093533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14904-w Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Helliwell, J. R.
Sturrock, C. J.
Mairhofer, S.
Craigon, J.
Ashton, R. W.
Miller, A. J.
Whalley, W. R.
Mooney, S. J.
The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title_full The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title_fullStr The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title_full_unstemmed The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title_short The emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
title_sort emergent rhizosphere: imaging the development of the porous architecture at the root-soil interface
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5665926/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29093533
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14904-w
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