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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Incorporating belowground traits: avenues towards a whole‐tree perspective on performance
TL;DR: In this article , the authors identify two key avenues to further develop a whole-tree perspective on performance and highlight the conceptual and practical challenges and opportunities involved in including the belowground.
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Biomasa y productividad en las zonas áridas mexicanas
TL;DR: Las zonas áridas mexicanas ocupan 54% of la superficie y las habita más de 40% of the población nacional, y estos muestran que la biomasa aérea y subterránea fue superior al promedio de los desiertos del mundo y sus valores altos estuvieron cercanos al intervalo del bosque tropical caducifolio
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Repeated extreme droughts decrease root production, but not the potential for post‐drought recovery of root production, in a mesic grassland
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors conducted a seven-year experiment that imposed extreme drought (growing season precipitation reduced 66%) in a mesic grassland and found that repeated drought decreased root mass production more than twice as much as a single drought (−63% versus −27%, respectively, relative to ambient precipitation).
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Microbial activity and root carbon inputs are more important than soil carbon diffusion in simulating soil carbon profiles
Ying-Ping Wang,Haicheng Zhang,Philippe Ciais,Daniel S. Goll,Daniel S. Goll,Yuanyuan Huang,Jeffrey D. Wood,Scott V. Ollinger,Xuli Tang,Anne-Katrin Prescher +9 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a vertically resolved soil carbon model was developed by including vertical transport of soil carbon and using Michaelis-Menten kinetics for soil carbon decomposition by microbes.
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