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DOI 10.1007/s11258-016-0588-7
. Gesche Blume-Werry .
Abstract Despite their critical role in every terrestrial ecosystem, fine root production and mortality
have not been widely compared among systems due to
the practical difficulties of belowground research. We
examined fine root production and mortality among
five contrasting sites: native and invaded grassland in
eastern Montana, USA, aspen forest in southern
Saskatchewan, Canada, and birch forest and tundra
in northern Sweden. Additionally, we investigated the
importance of minirhizotron sampling interval on
measures of root production and mortality by comparing measures produced from 1-, 7-, 14-, and 21-day
sample intervals. Root length and mortality varied
significantly among sites, with invaded grassland
having the greatest root length ([2 9 than any other
Introduction
Root systems comprise 1783 % of the plant mass in
ecosystems such as temperate forests and grasslands
(Mokany et al. 2006). Fine root dynamics, i.e.,
production and mortality, strongly influence soil
resources and nutrient cycling in many ecosystems,
including temperate grassland and forest (Partel and
Wilson 2002), dry heathland (Aerts et al. 1992),
savanna (West et al. 2004), and experimental grass
mixtures (Van Der Krift and Berendse 2002). For
example, nitrogen (N) input from root litter production
accounts for the 7187 % of the total N input in
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Plant Ecol
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Methods
Study areas
We studied five sites (Table 1) comprising native
mixed-grass prairie in Montana, a nearby stand
Plant Ecol
Table 1 Description of studied sites
Site
Cl
Location
Latitude
Longitude
Al
Dominant species
Invaded
grassland
Temp
Medicine
Lake, USA
48280 1600 N
104220 1600 W
600
4.9a
340a
Agropyron cristatum
Native
grassland
Temp
48280 1600 N
104220 1600 W
600
4.9a
340a
Tundra
Arc
Medicine
Lake, USA
Karkevagge,
Sweden
68230 000 N
18200 3500 E
740
-3d
1180d
Aspen
forest
Temp
White Butte,
Canada
50460 0700 N
10430 6800 W
620
2.3b
378b
Birch
forest
Arc
Nissonjohkke,
Sweden
68190 5100 N
18450 3300 E
400
-0.1c
335c
Cl climatic zone, Al altitude (m), T mean annual temperature (C), P mean annual precipitation (mm), Temp temperate ecosystems,
Arc arctic ecosystem
a
Site
Minirhizotron installation
Image collection
Invaded grassland
Spring 2006
MayJune 2012
Native grassland
Spring 2006
MayJune 2012
Tundra
Spring 2010
AugustSeptember 2012
Aspen forest
Summer 2000
August 2012
Birch forest
Spring 2010
AugustSeptember 2012
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Plant Ecol
Results
Root length
Root length varied significantly among sites
(P \ 0.0001). Invaded grassland had root length
significantly greater than any other site (Fig. 1) and
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Discussion
Variation in root length revealed two major trends.
First, root length beneath the invasive grass A.
cristatum was more than twice that of any other site
studied, including the nearby native grassland. Other
studies also found increased root length after invasion
by the same species, A. cristatum (MacDougall and
Wilson 2011; Balogianni et al. 2015). Second, climate
and the accompanying differences in dominant plant
growth forms appear to have a strong effect on root
length. For example, root length was 56 % greater in
the temperate aspen forest than arctic birch forest.
Additionally, the 71 % greater root length found in
temperate native grassland compared with herbaceous
tundra also corresponds to temperature differences
(Table 1). Thus, the greater root length found in
temperate site may be associated with the sites higher
temperature which tends to increase evaporation and
decrease soil water. As a general trend, plants allocate
more growth to roots as water becomes scarce (King
et al. 1999; Tierney and Fahey 2002; Steinaker et al.
2010). On the other hand, it is possible that shorter
growing seasons in the Arctic also limited the extent to
which roots colonized the surfaces of the rhizotron
tubes.
Plant Ecol
Fig. 1 Mean (SE) root
length (m m-2) in five sites,
averaged across eight
sampling days (N = 5).
Different uppercase letters
represent significant
(P \ 0.05) differences
among sites as revealed by
repeated measures ANOVA
followed by Tukeys tests
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Plant Ecol
Fig. 2 Mean (SE) root length (m m-2) in five sites over eight sampling days and in aspen forest over six sampling days
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Plant Ecol
Fig. 3 Mean (SE) root
production (a) and mortality
(b) (m m-2 day-1) derived
from 1-, 7-, 14-, and 21-day
sample intervals, averaged
across four ecosystems.
Aspen forest was not
included in the analysis and
in the graph due to missing
data
Table 3 Weighted ANOVA results for root production and mortality with site and sample interval as the main factors, and their
interactions
Source of variation
Root production
Root mortality
DF
F ratio
DF
F ratio
Site
0.45
0.72
7.46
\.001
Sample interval
0.05
0.98
0.41
0.74
1.42
0.1
0.15
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Plant Ecol
Fig. 4 Mean (SE) root
mortality (m m-2 day-1) in
four ecosystems, averaged
across sample intervals.
Different uppercase letters
represent significant
differences between sample
intervals (P \ 0.05) within
each ecosystem. Aspen
forest was not included in
the analysis due to missing
data
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