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Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Forest peatlands represent 25 % of global peatlands and store large amounts of carbon (C) as peat. Traditionally they have been drained in order to increase forestry yield, which may cause large losses of C from the peat. Rewetting aims to stop these losses and to restore the in...

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Autores principales: Schwieger, Sarah, Blume-Werry, Gesche, Ciesiolka, Felix, Anadon-Rosell, Alba
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7872119/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33211793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa195
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author Schwieger, Sarah
Blume-Werry, Gesche
Ciesiolka, Felix
Anadon-Rosell, Alba
author_facet Schwieger, Sarah
Blume-Werry, Gesche
Ciesiolka, Felix
Anadon-Rosell, Alba
author_sort Schwieger, Sarah
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Forest peatlands represent 25 % of global peatlands and store large amounts of carbon (C) as peat. Traditionally they have been drained in order to increase forestry yield, which may cause large losses of C from the peat. Rewetting aims to stop these losses and to restore the initial storage function of the peatlands. As roots represent major peat-forming elements in these systems, we sampled roots with diameter <5 mm in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland in north-east Germany to evaluate differences in tree biomass investments below ground, root functional characteristics and root age. METHODS: We cored soil next to Alnus glutinosa stems and sorted root biomass into <1, 1–2 and 2–5 mm diameter classes. We measured biomass distribution and specific root area (SRA) in 10-cm depth increments down to 50 cm, and estimated root age from annual growth rings. KEY RESULTS: Root biomass in the rewetted site was more than double that in the drained site. This difference was mostly driven by very fine roots <1 mm, which accounted for 51 % of the total root biomass and were mostly (75 %) located in the upper 20 cm. For roots <1 mm, SRA did not differ between the sites. However, SRA of the 1–2 mm and 2–5 mm diameter roots was higher in the drained than in the rewetted site. Root age did not differ between sites. CONCLUSIONS: The size-dependent opposite patterns between root biomass and their functional characteristics under contrasting water regimes indicate differences between fine and coarse roots in their response to environmental changes. Root age distribution points to similar root turnover rates between the sites, while higher root biomass in the rewetted site clearly indicates larger tree C stocks below ground under rewetting, supporting the C sink function of the ecosystem.
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spelling pubmed-78721192021-02-12 Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland Schwieger, Sarah Blume-Werry, Gesche Ciesiolka, Felix Anadon-Rosell, Alba Ann Bot Original Articles BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Forest peatlands represent 25 % of global peatlands and store large amounts of carbon (C) as peat. Traditionally they have been drained in order to increase forestry yield, which may cause large losses of C from the peat. Rewetting aims to stop these losses and to restore the initial storage function of the peatlands. As roots represent major peat-forming elements in these systems, we sampled roots with diameter <5 mm in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland in north-east Germany to evaluate differences in tree biomass investments below ground, root functional characteristics and root age. METHODS: We cored soil next to Alnus glutinosa stems and sorted root biomass into <1, 1–2 and 2–5 mm diameter classes. We measured biomass distribution and specific root area (SRA) in 10-cm depth increments down to 50 cm, and estimated root age from annual growth rings. KEY RESULTS: Root biomass in the rewetted site was more than double that in the drained site. This difference was mostly driven by very fine roots <1 mm, which accounted for 51 % of the total root biomass and were mostly (75 %) located in the upper 20 cm. For roots <1 mm, SRA did not differ between the sites. However, SRA of the 1–2 mm and 2–5 mm diameter roots was higher in the drained than in the rewetted site. Root age did not differ between sites. CONCLUSIONS: The size-dependent opposite patterns between root biomass and their functional characteristics under contrasting water regimes indicate differences between fine and coarse roots in their response to environmental changes. Root age distribution points to similar root turnover rates between the sites, while higher root biomass in the rewetted site clearly indicates larger tree C stocks below ground under rewetting, supporting the C sink function of the ecosystem. Oxford University Press 2020-09-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7872119/ /pubmed/33211793 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa195 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Articles
Schwieger, Sarah
Blume-Werry, Gesche
Ciesiolka, Felix
Anadon-Rosell, Alba
Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title_full Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title_fullStr Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title_full_unstemmed Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title_short Root biomass and root traits of Alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
title_sort root biomass and root traits of alnus glutinosa show size-dependent and opposite patterns in a drained and a rewetted forest peatland
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7872119/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33211793
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcaa195
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