A global Fine-Root Ecology Database to address below-ground challenges in plant ecology.
Colleen M. Iversen,M. Luke McCormack,A. Shafer Powell,Christopher B. Blackwood,Grégoire T. Freschet,Jens Kattge,Catherine Roumet,Daniel B Stover,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Peter M. van Bodegom,Cyrille Violle +12 more
TLDR
This Viewpoint addresses the need for a centralized fine-root trait database, and introduces the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED), which so far includes > 70 000 observations encompassing a broad range of root traits and also includes associated environmental data.Abstract:
Variation and tradeoffs within and among plant traits are increasingly being harnessed by empiricists and modelers to understand and predict ecosystem processes under changing environmental conditions. While fine roots play an important role in ecosystem functioning, fine-root traits are underrepresented in global trait databases. This has hindered efforts to analyze fine-root trait variation and link it with plant function and environmental conditions at a global scale. This Viewpoint addresses the need for a centralized fine-root trait database, and introduces the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED, http://roots.ornl.gov) which so far includes > 70 000 observations encompassing a broad range of root traits and also includes associated environmental data. FRED represents a critical step toward improving our understanding of below-ground plant ecology. For example, FRED facilitates the quantification of variation in fine-root traits across root orders, species, biomes, and environmental gradients while also providing a platform for assessments of covariation among root, leaf, and wood traits, the role of fine roots in ecosystem functioning, and the representation of fine roots in terrestrial biosphere models. Continued input of observations into FRED to fill gaps in trait coverage will improve our understanding of changes in fine-root traits across space and time.read more
Citations
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Climate, soil and plant functional types as drivers of global fine-root trait variation
Grégoire T. Freschet,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Caroline M. Tucker,Joseph M. Craine,M. Luke McCormack,Cyrille Violle,Florian Fort,Florian Fort,Christopher B. Blackwood,Katherine R. Urban-Mead,Colleen M. Iversen,Anne Bonis,Louise H. Comas,Johannes H. C. Cornelissen,Ming Dong,Dali Guo,Sarah E. Hobbie,Robert J. Holdaway,Steven W. Kembel,Naoki Makita,Vladimir G. Onipchenko,Catherine Picon-Cochard,Peter B. Reich,Peter B. Reich,Enrique G. de la Riva,Stuart W. Smith,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Mark G. Tjoelker,David A. Wardle,Catherine Roumet +29 more
TL;DR: This study reveals both the large variation in fine-root traits encountered globally and the relevance of several key plant functional types and soil and climate variables for explaining a substantial part of this variation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Root traits as drivers of plant and ecosystem functioning: current understanding, pitfalls and future research needs
Grégoire T. Freschet,Grégoire T. Freschet,Catherine Roumet,Louise H. Comas,Monique Weemstra,A. Glyn Bengough,A. Glyn Bengough,Boris Rewald,Richard D. Bardgett,Gerlinde B. De Deyn,David W. Johnson,Jitka Klimešová,Martin Lukac,Martin Lukac,M. Luke McCormack,Ina C. Meier,Ina C. Meier,Loïc Pagès,Hendrik Poorter,Hendrik Poorter,Iván Prieto,Nina Wurzburger,Marcin Zadworny,Agnieszka Bagniewska-Zadworna,Elison B. Blancaflor,Ivano Brunner,Arthur Gessler,Sarah E. Hobbie,Colleen M. Iversen,Liesje Mommer,Catherine Picon-Cochard,Johannes A. Postma,Laura Rose,Peter Ryser,Michael Scherer-Lorenzen,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Tao Sun,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Alexandra Weigelt,Larry M. York,Alexia Stokes +40 more
TL;DR: It is found that below-ground traits with widest importance in plant and ecosystem functioning are not those most commonly measured, and advocate that establishing causal hierarchical links among root traits will provide a hypothesis-based framework to identify the most parsimonious sets of traits with strongest influence on the functions, and to link genotypes to plant andcosystem functioning.
Journal ArticleDOI
A worldview of root traits: the influence of ancestry, growth form, climate and mycorrhizal association on the functional trait variation of fine-root tissues in seed plants.
Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Grégoire T. Freschet,Catherine Roumet,Christopher B. Blackwood +4 more
TL;DR: These analyses provide evidence that the integration of roots and leaves in the PES requires better accounting of the variation in traits across phylogenetic clades, and inclusion of phylogenetic information provides a powerful framework for predictions of belowground functional traits at global scales.
Journal ArticleDOI
A starting guide to root ecology: strengthening ecological concepts and standardising root classification, sampling, processing and trait measurements
Grégoire T. Freschet,Loïc Pagès,Colleen M. Iversen,Louise H. Comas,Boris Rewald,Catherine Roumet,Jitka Klimešová,Marcin Zadworny,Hendrik Poorter,Hendrik Poorter,Johannes A. Postma,Thomas S. Adams,Agnieszka Bagniewska-Zadworna,A. Glyn Bengough,A. Glyn Bengough,Elison B. Blancaflor,Ivano Brunner,Johannes H. C. Cornelissen,Eric Garnier,Arthur Gessler,Sarah E. Hobbie,Ina C. Meier,Liesje Mommer,Catherine Picon-Cochard,Laura Rose,Peter Ryser,Michael Scherer-Lorenzen,Nadejda A. Soudzilovskaia,Alexia Stokes,Tao Sun,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Monique Weemstra,Alexandra Weigelt,Nina Wurzburger,Larry M. York,Sarah A. Batterman,Sarah A. Batterman,Moemy Gomes de Moraes,Štěpán Janeček,Hans Lambers,V. G. Salmon,Nishanth Tharayil,M. Luke McCormack +42 more
TL;DR: A major aim of this guide is to help break down barriers between the many subdisciplines of root ecology and ecophysiology, broaden researchers’ views on the multiple aspects of root study and create favourable conditions for the inception of comprehensive experiments on the role of roots in plant and ecosystem functioning.
Posted ContentDOI
The fungal collaboration gradient dominates the root economics space in plants
Joana Bergmann,Alexandra Weigelt,Fons van der Plas,Daniel C. Laughlin,Thomas W. Kuyper,Nathaly R. Guerrero-Ramírez,Oscar J. Valverde-Barrantes,Helge Bruelheide,Grégoire T. Freschet,Grégoire T. Freschet,Colleen M. Iversen,Jens Kattge,M. Luke McCormack,Ina C. Meier,Matthias C. Rillig,Catherine Roumet,Marina Semchenko,Christopher J. Sweeney,Jasper van Ruijven,Larry M. York,Liesje Mommer +20 more
TL;DR: It is shown that root-mycorrhizal collaboration can short circuit a one-dimensional economic spectrum, providing an entire space of economic possibilities forRoot economics, ranging from ‘do-it-yourself’ resource acquisition to ‘outsourcing’ to mycorrhIZal partners.
References
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