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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Water Management and Systems Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #414675
Research Project: Improving Crop Performance and Precision Irrigation Management in Semi-Arid Regions through Data-Driven Research, AI, and Integrated Models

Location: Water Management and Systems Research

Title: Diverse root strategies associated with fast to slow resource acquisition occur within and among plant growth forms in a temperate forest community

Author
item WANG, SIYUAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item Comas, Louise
item KLUITENBERG, GERARD - Kennesaw State University
item MCCORMACK, M - Morton Arboretum
item REICH, PETER - University Of Minnesota
item GU, JIACUN - Northeast Forestry University
item SUN, TAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences

Submitted to: Ecology Letters
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2025
Publication Date: 3/2/2025
Citation: Wang, S., Comas, L.H., Kluitenberg, G.J., Mccormack, M.L., Reich, P.B., Gu, J., Sun, T. 2025. Diverse root strategies associated with fast to slow resource acquisition occur within and among plant growth forms in a temperate forest community. Ecology Letters. 45(4). Article tpaf027. https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpaf027.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpaf027

Interpretive Summary: Different plant root traits are found in regions with different climates and nutrient levels across the globe, but traits also vary within a single community. In this study, we collected and analyzed root samples of 115 co-existing species from five different plant types (trees, shrubs, lianas, herbs, and ferns) to explore traits related to soil exploration and nutrient uptake. We found that root traits within this community were as diverse as the global range. Root traits were more similar within plant types than among them, suggesting that species of the same plant type have a similar strategy for acquiring nutrients. Diverse strategies among plant types may allow them to avoid direct competition. These findings improve our understanding of plant root traits and allow us to identify important traits.

Technical Abstract: Root nutrient acquisition strategies are largely determined by climate, soil resource availability and plant evolutionary history at regional and global scales, yet the drivers at the scales of local forests are less explored. We sampled 115 species across five different plant growth forms (i.e. trees, shrubs, lianas, herbs, and ferns) from a temperate secondary forest in China and measured seven key functional traits of first-order roots of each species, including root morphological, anatomical, and chemical traits. The degree of interspecific variation of most root traits was greater among growth forms than within them, indicating that plants with similar growth habits may also have similar ecological performance belowground within a common environment. Additionally, plants with different growth forms were separately aggregated in root economics space, indicating that growth forms play a dominant role for shaping soil resource strategies from fast to slow acquisition in a temperate forest. Diverse strategies in root economics space organized by plant growth forms may allow species to occupy multifarious niches, avoid strong competition and promote plant coexistence in a local forest community. These findings improve our understanding of functional trait diversity underlying community assembly and stability from a belowground perspective.