Resource Capture by Localized Root Proliferation: Why Do Plants Bother?

Resource Capture by Localized Root Proliferation: Why Do Plants Bother?

Using data from a well-known, published experiment Drew (1975)TheNew Phytologist75: 479–490], the potential exploitationof locally available nutrients by barley roots is calculated.Local proliferation of lateral roots does not necessarily achievesignificantly greater exploitation of mobile soil resourceslike nitrate, but it does for less mobile ones such as phosphate.Despite this, the magnitude of the proliferative response isas great to locally available nitrate as it is to phosphate.This implies an ‘over-production’ of roots in responseto localized nitrate availability, prompting a re-evaluationof the nature and implications of the response mechanism(s)of roots to soil heterogeneity. Hordeum vulgare; barley; carbon; heterogeneity; lateral root; nitrate; localized nutrient supply; phosphate; proliferation; root