Very fine roots respond to soil depth: biomass allocation,morphology, and physiology in a broad-leaved temperate forest

Very fine roots (<0.5 mm in diameter) of forest trees may serve as better indicators of root function than the traditional category of <2 mm, but how these roots will exhibit the plasticity of species-specific traits in response to heterogeneous soil nutrients is unknown. Here, we examined the vertical distribution of biomass and morphological and physiological traits of fine roots across three narrow diameter classes (<0.5, 0.5–1.0, and 1.0–2.0 mm) of Quercus serrata and Ilex pedunculosa at five soil depths down to 50 cm in a broad-leaved temperate forest. In both species, biomass and the allocation of very fine roots were higher in the surface soil but lower below 10-cm soil depth compared to values for larger roots (0.5–2.0 mm). When we applied these diameter classes, only very fine roots of Q. serrata exhibited significant changes in specific root length (SRL; m g⁻¹) and root nitrogen (N) concentrations with soil depth, whereas the N concentrations only changed significantly in I. pedunculosa. The SRL and root N concentrations of larger roots in the two species did not significantly differ among soil depths. Thus, very fine roots may exhibit species-specific traits and change their potential for nutrient and water uptake in response to soil depth by plasticity in root biomass, the length, and the N in response to available resources.     

Dynamic phenotypic plasticity for root growth in Polygonum: a comparative study

Species differences in patterns of phenotypic plasticity may be an important aspect of adaptive diversity. Plasticity for functionally important root traits was studied in inbred field lineages of Polygonum persicaria and P. cespitosum (Polygonaceae). Replicate seedlings were grown in plexiglass rhizotrons under a range of constant and temporally variable moisture treatments. Plasticity was determined for final whole-plant biomass, root biomass allocation, and absolute and proportional root length. The dynamic aspect of root plasticity was examined by digitizing weekly tracings of the proportional deployment of each plant's root system to different vertical soil layers. Plants of both species expressed significant functionally adaptive phenotypic plasticity in the relative allocation, length, and vertical deployment of root systems in response to contrasting moisture conditions. Plasticity patterns in these closely related species were in general qualitatively similar, but for most traits differed in the magnitude and/or the timing of the plastic response. Dynamic changes in root deployment were more marked as well as faster in P. persicaria. Species differences in patterns of individual plasticity were generally consistent with the broader ecological distribution of P. persicaria in diverse as well as temporally variable moisture habitats.     

半干旱草地长期封育进程中针茅植物根系格局变化特征

以云雾山不同封育年限草地针茅植物根系和土壤为研究对象,对其根系特征、土壤特性及两者关系进行研究,以探讨分析封育对针茅根系格局的影响。结果表明:(1)针茅植物根系生物量、根长密度、根表面积和根体积在封育初期轻微下降,之后缓慢上升,并在封育30 a草地得到显著增加。(2)随封育年限增加,各根系指标在3种针茅物种间的组成格局具有类似变化规律,具体表现为:长芒草在放牧草地所占比例最高,之后逐渐降低,并在封育30 a草地消失;大针茅所占比例呈先升后降变化规律,并在封育22 a草地达到最大值;甘青针茅仅出现于封育30 a草地,且占据优势地位。(3)大针茅和甘青针茅0—0.6 mm径级根系比例高于大针茅,使其根系直径显著低于大针茅,比根长和比根面积显著高于大针茅;此外,长芒草根组织密度显著高于长芒草和甘青针茅。(4)长期封育在显著提高土壤水分、养分含量和土壤氮磷比的同时显著降低土壤碳氮比,但对微生物生物量碳、氮无明显影响。(5)针茅根系特征与土壤指标的关联性分析显示针茅根系受土壤氮资源的显著影响。     

Bringing function to structure: Root–soil interactions shaping phosphatase activity throughout a soil profile in Puerto Rico

1. Large areas of highly productive tropical forests occur on weathered soils with low concentrations of available phosphorus (P). In such forests, root and microbial production of acid phosphatase enzymes capable of mineralizing organic phosphorus is considered vital to increasing available P for plant uptake.
2. We measured both root and soil phosphatase throughout depth and alongside a variety of root and soil factors to better understand the potential of roots and soil biota to increase P availability and to constrain estimates of the biochemical mineralization within ecosystem models.
3. We measured soil phosphatase down to 1 m, root phosphatase to 30 cm, and collected data on fine‐root mass density, specific root length, soil P, bulk density, and soil texture using soil cores in four tropical forests within the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico.
4. We found that soil phosphatase decreased with soil depth, but not root phosphatase. Furthermore, when both soil and root phosphatase were expressed per soil volume, soil phosphatase was 100‐fold higher that root phosphatase.
5. Both root and soil factors influenced soil and root phosphatase. Soil phosphatase increased with fine‐root mass density and organic P, which together explained over 50% of the variation in soil phosphatase. Over 80% of the variation in root phosphatase per unit root mass was attributed to specific root length (positive correlation) and available (resin) P (negative correlation).
6. Synthesis: Fine‐root traits and soil P data are necessary to understand and represent soil and root phosphatase activity throughout the soil column and across sites with different soil conditions and tree species. These findings can be used to parameterize or benchmark estimates of biochemical mineralization in ecosystem models that contain fine‐root biomass and soil P distributions throughout depth.

     

The effects of clipping and soil moisture on leaf and root morphology and root respiration in two temperate and two tropical grasses

Numerous studies have explored the effect of environmental conditions on a number of plant physiological and structural traits, such as photosynthetic rate, shoot versus root biomass allocation, and leaf and root morphology. In contrast, there have been a few investigations of how those conditions may influence root respiration, even though this flux can represent a major component of carbon (C) pathway in plants. In this study, we examined the response of mass-specific root respiration (μmol CO₂ g⁻¹ s⁻¹), shoot and root biomass, and leaf photosynthesis to clipping and variable soil moisture in two C₃ (Festuca idahoensis Elmer., Poa pratensis L.) and two C₄ (Andropogon greenwayi Napper, and Sporobolus kentrophyllus K. Schum.) grass species. The C₃ and C₄ grasses were collected in Yellowstone National Park, USA and the Serengeti ecosystem, Africa, respectively, where they evolved under temporally variable soil moisture conditions and were exposed to frequent, often intense grazing. We also measured the influence of clipping and soil moisture on specific leaf area (SLA), a trait associated with moisture conservation, and specific root length (SRL), a trait associated with efficiency per unit mass of soil resource uptake. Clipping did not influence any plant trait, with the exception that it reduced the root to shoot ratio (R:S) and increased SRL in P. pratensis. In contrast to the null effect of clipping on specific root respiration, reduced soil moisture lowered specific root respiration in all four species. In addition, species differed in how leaf and root structural traits responded to lower available soil moisture. P. pratensis and A. greenwayi increased SLA, by 23% and 33%, respectively, and did not alter SRL. Conversely, S. kentrophyllus increased SRL by 42% and did not alter SLA. F. idahoensis responded to lower available soil moisture by increasing both SLA and SRL by 38% and 33%, respectively. These responses were species-specific strategies that did not coincide with photosynthetic pathway (C₃/C₄) or growth form. Thus, mass-specific root respiration responded uniformly among these four grass species to clipping (no effect) and increased soil moisture stress (decline), whereas the responses of other traits (i.e., R:S ratio, SLA, SRL) to the treatments, especially moisture availability, were species-specific. Consequently, the effects of either clipping or variation in soil moisture on the C budget of these four different grasses species were driven primarily by the plasticity of R:S ratios and the structural leaf and root traits of individual species, rather than variation in the response of mass-specific root respiration.     

Traits explain sorting of C4 grasses along a global precipitation gradient

1. Species distributions are closely associated with moisture availability, but the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. Drought relations are especially important for plants such as C₄ grasses that dominate seasonally dry ecosystems. Here, we test the hypothesis that C₄ grass species sampled across global precipitation gradients show variation in survival under drought that can be explained by their traits.
2. Our experiment subjected 18 C₄ grass species to a lethal drought under controlled environmental conditions. The number of days until death was measured, along with root traits, senescence, and aspects of hydraulic function.
3. We identified two strategies: Drought‐avoiding species that stayed green as the water potential declined and drought‐tolerating species that senesced more quickly but could extend survival via drought‐tolerant meristems.
4. Plants that stay‐green for longer occupied drier habitats and had the longest survival under drought, facilitated by narrow root diameter and isohydric stomatal behavior. Plants that senesced quickly had thicker roots, an anisohydric strategy, and occupied wetter habitats.
5. Global distributions of C₄ grasses can be predicted by variation in rates of senescence, meristem survival, root traits, and stomatal strategy, showing the value of these traits for understanding plant distributions in relation to climate.

     

Root architecture in cultivated and wild lettuce (Lactuca spp.)

Root architecture is described for intact root systems of cultivated (Lactuca sativa L.) and wild (L. serriola L.) lettuce, grown for 5 to 6 weeks in greenhouse pot and cylinder experiments in coarse-textured soil. L. sativa cv. Salinas and a sclinas line of L. serriola attained the same biomass at 4 to 6 weeks after planting. Root biomass allocation was also similar, but root architecture differed. In the top zone along the tap root (0 to 5 cm), Salinas tended to produce more laterals, a greater total root length, and more external links (segments that originate at a branch point and end in a meristem) than wild lettuce. In the 5 to 55cm zone of the tap root, these measures were greater in the wild species. These patterns of root structure were generally corroborated by a second cylinder study with a different pair of L. sativa and L. serriola. Regressions of root structural traits were made against total root dry weight as a means to compare root architecture independently of the size of the root system. Regressions demonstrated that production of root segments differed between the two species; for example the slope for the regression of summed external link length in the top 0 to 5 cm with total root dry weight was significantly higher for Salinas, indicating that the rate of construction in the top 0 to 5cm was greater for cultivated than for wild lettuce. Yet, from 5 cm depth to the tap root tip, the rate of construction of external link length was greater in L. serriola. For many of these types of regression, r² and mean slope ± SE suggested that more variation occurred in cultivated than wild lettuce, yet genetic heterogeneity was probably low within the studied taxa. Inadvertent selection may have occurred in the breeding of cultivated lettuce varieties for increased root growth in the surface zone where water and fertilizer are applied, and for greater plasticity in construction of root segments, which might maximize the efficiency of exploitation of soil moisture and nutrients.     

Phylogenetic diversity is a better predictor of wetland community resistance to Alternanthera philoxeroides invasion than species richness

• Highly biodiversity communities have been shown to better resist plant invasions through complementarity effects. Species richness (SR) is a widely used biodiversity metric but lacks explanatory power when there are only a few species. Communities with low SR can have a wide variety of phylogenetic diversities (PD), which might allow for a better prediction of invasibility.
• We assessed the effect of diversity reduction of a wetland community assemblage typical of the Beijing area on biotic resistance to invasion of the exotic weed Alternanthera philoxeroides and compared the reduction in SR and PD in predicting community invasibility.
• The eight studied resident species performed similarly when grown alone and when grown in eight‐species communities together with the invasive A. philoxeroides. Variation partitioning showed that PD contributed more to variation in both A. philoxeroides traits and community indicators than SR. All A. philoxeroides traits and community indicators, except for evenness index, showed a linear relationship with PD. However, only stem length of A. philoxeroides differed between the one‐ and two‐species treatments, and the diversity index of the communities differed between the one‐ and two‐species treatments and between the one‐ and four‐species treatments.
• Our results showed that in natural or semi‐natural wetlands with relatively low SR, PD may be a better predictor of invasibility than SR. When designing management strategies for mitigating A. philoxeroides invasion, deliberately raising PD is expected to be more efficient than simply increasing species number.

     

Biomass loss and change in species dominance shift stream community excretion stoichiometry during severe drought

1. Animals contribute significantly to nutrient cycling through excretion, but most studies consider their effects under relatively benign abiotic conditions. Disturbances such as drought may alter animals’ nutrient contributions through shifts in species composition and biomass. Headwater streams are particularly vulnerable to extreme climate events and thus might show rapid changes in stream biota and their ecosystem effects.
2. We tested how biomass and subsequent ecosystem effects (nutrient cycling) of an intermittent prairie stream community changed during a drought. We quantified the biomass and contributions to nutrient cycling for assemblages comprising fishes, crayfish, and tadpoles in 12 isolated pools over 3 months encompassing the harshest drought on record for Kings Creek, KS, U.S.A. We predicted that macroconsumer biomass would decline with pool surface area and that differences in macroconsumer biomass and taxonomic composition would lead to different contributions of pool assemblages to nutrient cycling.
3. The biomass of pool assemblages declined with decreasing pool size, a pattern apparently driven by mortality, emigration, or metamorphosis. We also observed a change in assemblage structure of drying pools during drought relative to pool size, shifting dominance toward species with more drought-resistant traits. Accordingly, assemblage nitrogen (N) excretion rates declined as pool biomass was reduced, leading to a 58% reduction in N available to epilithic biofilms. Phosphorus (P) excretion rates declined from June to July, but increased in August, as species with high P excretion rates maintained similar proportional biomass and biomass of a non-native fish increased. Molar N:P of pool assemblage excretion declined significantly throughout the drought and coincided with loss of southern redbelly dace (Chrosomus erythrogaster: Cyprinidae).
4. Animal-mediated nutrient cycling was altered by the loss of biomass and stoichiometric traits of taxa that differed in their occurrences and ability to tolerate abiotic conditions during drought. Elevated availability of dissolved N in isolated pools may increase N uptake rates by biofilms during drought conditions, indicating the importance of N excreted by aggregated macroconsumers, especially those with unique stoichiometric traits. While the significance of shifts in the composition of freshwater communities to ecosystems is not entirely known, additional losses in ecosystem function and changes in community structure may follow episodes of severe drought.

     

青藏高原多年冻土区不同水分条件的高寒草甸根系功能性状对增温的响应

在青藏高原多年冻土广泛分布的风火山地区,选择小嵩草（Kobresia pygmea）草甸和藏嵩草（Kobresia tibetica）沼泽化草甸为研究对象,采用开顶增温室（Open top chambers, OTCs）模拟气候变暖,探讨模拟增温对土壤水分差异的两种草甸地下生物量及根系功能性状的影响。结果显示,（1）增温显著增加小嵩草草甸0—20 cm根系生物量,主要是由于表层（0—10 cm）根系生物量显著增加,而对藏嵩草沼泽化草甸根系生物量无影响。（2）增温显著增加了小嵩草草甸根组织密度,同时提高了藏嵩草沼泽化草甸10—20 cm的比根长和比根面积（3）增温降低了小嵩草草甸的根系碳含量及10—20 cm根系氮含量,增加了藏嵩草沼泽化草甸的碳含量及10—20 cm根系氮含量,显著提高了小嵩草草甸和藏嵩草沼泽化草甸深层（10—20 cm）根系碳氮比。这些结果预示着增温使得土壤水分较低的小嵩草草甸朝着资源保守的慢速生长型发展,以适应暖干化的环境;土壤水分较高的藏嵩草沼泽化草甸朝着资源获取的快速生长型发展,加速利用土壤中的养分满足植物生长需要。可见,土壤水分可以调节高寒草甸对气候变暖的演变趋势,强调了水分的重要性。     

Small differences in root distributions allow resource niche partitioning

1. Deep roots have long been thought to allow trees to coexist with shallow‐rooted grasses. However, data demonstrating how root distributions affect water uptake and niche partitioning are uncommon.
2. We describe tree and grass root distributions using a depth‐specific tracer experiment six times over two years in a subtropical savanna, Kruger National Park, South Africa. These point‐in‐time measurements were then used in a soil water flow model to simulate continuous water uptake by depth and plant growth form (trees and grasses) across two growing seasons. This allowed estimates of the total amount of water a root distribution could absorb as well as the amount of water a root distribution could absorb in excess of the other rooting distribution (i.e., unique hydrological niche).
3. Most active tree and grass roots were in shallow soils: The mean depth of water uptake was 22 cm for trees and 17 cm for grasses. Slightly deeper rooting distributions provided trees with 5% more soil water than the grasses in a drier season, but 13% less water in a wetter season. Small differences also provided each rooting distribution (tree or grass) with unique hydrological niches of 4 to 13 mm water.
4. The effect of rooting distributions has long been inferred. By quantifying the depth and timing of water uptake, we demonstrated how even small differences in rooting distributions can provide plants with resource niches that can contribute to species coexistence. Differences in total water uptake and unique hydrological niche sizes were small in this system, but they indicated that tradeoffs in rooting strategies can be expected to contribute to tree and grass coexistence because 1) competitive advantages change over time and 2) plant growth forms always have access to a soil resource pool that is not available to the other plant growth form.

     

Life histories of two desert species of the bulbous genus Bellevalia

Summary Annual biomass increment and biomass partitioning to leaves, roots and reproduction, and biomass storage in the below-ground bulb was measured in plants of two species of the geophytic genus Bellevalia grown outdoors at three levels of soil moisture. The differences between the species were in accordance with the hypothesis that plants of more arid environments should rely more on internal reserves than plants of more productive environments. In Bellevalia desertorum, a shallow rooted species of the most arid habitats in the Central Negev, leaf and root development during outgrowth at the beginning of winter was rather variable, and followed soil moisture availability to a certain degree. A small portion of its biomass budget was committed to seed production, which varied little among the irrigation regimes. The rest of the biomass was stored in the bulb. The amount of biomass devoted annually to reproduction was mainly determined by the amount of reserves already present in the bulb. In contrast, in B. eigii, which grows in the more productive wadis with its bulb at a depth of 15 to 30 cm, leaf and root growth was not only determined by water availability, but also by initial bulb mass. This resulted in a greater potential relative growth rate than in B. desertorum, but also in a greater risk of accumulating less biomass than it spent in root and leaf construction under poor soil moisture conditions. In this species, reproductive biomass and seed yield were proportional to current biomass gain and, in contrast to B. desertorum, independent of initial bulb mass, provided that the bulb was large enough to initiate flowering.     

塔克拉玛干沙漠腹地梭梭幼苗根系分布特征对不同灌溉量的响应

在塔克拉玛干沙漠腹地,采用分层分段挖掘法对不同灌溉量条件下(每株每次灌水35、24.5和14 kg)梭梭(Haloxylon ammodendron)幼苗根系的分布特征进行了研究。结果表明: 1)随着灌溉量的减少,梭梭幼苗根系生物量的分布格局有向深层发展的趋势,在不同灌溉量条件下地下垂直各层生物量与土壤垂直深度呈显著的负对数关系;2)各灌溉量梭梭幼苗的最大水平根长为垂直根长的2倍,但不同灌溉量根系生物量的水平分布趋势一致;3)吸收根生物量的垂直分布与土壤含水量的垂直变化基本一致,均呈“单峰型”曲线,但灌溉量不同,吸收根生物量峰值在土壤中出现的位置也不同,随着灌溉量的减少,吸收根集中分布区有向深层发展的趋势;4)根长、根表面积和根体积随着土壤深度的增加均呈“单峰型”曲线,灌溉量愈小,根长、根表面积和根体积的峰值愈位于土壤的深层;5)根冠比和垂直根深与株高之比随着灌溉量的减少而呈增加的趋势。     

High‐resolution distribution modeling of a threatened short‐range endemic plant informed by edaphic factors

1. Short‐range endemic plants often have edaphic specializations that, with their restricted distributions, expose them to increased risk of anthropogenic extinction.
2. Here, we present a modeling approach to understand habitat suitability for Ricinocarpos brevis R.J.F.Hend. & Mollemans (Euphorbiaceae), a threatened shrub confined to three isolated populations in the semi‐arid south‐west of Western Australia. The model is a maximum entropy species distribution projection constructed on the basis of physical soil characteristics and geomorphology data at approximately 25 m² (1 arc‐second) resolution.
3. The model predicts the species to occur on shallow, low bulk density soils that are located high in the landscape. The model shows high affinity (72.1% average likelihood of occurrence) for the known populations of R. brevis, as well as identifying likely locations that are not currently known to support the species. There was a strong relationship between the likelihood of R. brevis occurrence and soil moisture content that the model estimated at a depth of 20 cm.
4. We advocate that our approach should be standardized using publicly available data to generate testable hypotheses for the distribution and conservation management of short‐range endemic plant species for all of continental Australia.

     

Root growth and plant biomass in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lolium perenne</Emphasis> exploring a nutrient-rich patch in soil

We investigated soil exploration by roots and plant growth in a heterogeneous environment to determine whether roots can selectively explore a nutrient-rich patch, and how nutrient heterogeneity affects biomass allocation and total biomass before a patch is reached. Lolium perenne L. plants were grown in a factorial experiment with combinations of fertilization (heterogeneous and homogeneous) and day of harvest (14, 28, 42, or 56 days after transplanting). The plant in the heterogeneous treatment was smaller in its mean total biomass, and allocated more biomass to roots. The distributions of root length and root biomass in the heterogeneous treatment did not favor the nutrient-rich patch, and did not correspond to the patchy distribution of inorganic nitrogen. Specific root length (length/biomass) was higher and root elongation was more extensive both laterally and vertically in the heterogeneous treatment. These characteristics may enable plants to acquire nutrients efficiently and increase the probability of encountering nutrient-rich patches in a heterogeneous soil. However, heterogeneity of soil nutrients would hold back plant growth before a patch was reached. Therefore, although no significant selective root placement in the nutrient-rich patch was observed, plant growth before reaching nutrient-rich patches differed between heterogeneous and homogeneous environments.     

Vertical patterns of fine root biomass, morphology and nitrogen concentration in a subalpine fir-wave forest

To clarify the nutrient acquisition strategies for below-ground resources in a subalpine Abies forest with shallow soils, we examined the vertical patterns of fine root biomass, morphology, nitrogen concentration of fine root tissue and soil chemical characteristics in nine quadrats of sapling, young and mature stands in a subalpine fir-wave forest, central Japan. The community characteristics changed with stand development, but stand development did not influence the vertical pattern of fine root characteristics. Fine root biomass decreased with soil depth. Specific root length did not differ among soil depths, and neither average diameter nor tissue density of fine roots changed vertically. The nitrogen concentration of fine roots differed significantly among soil depths, and was higher in surface soils than in deeper soils. Moreover, soil pH, soil electrical conductivity and soil nitrogen concentration were higher in surface layers than deeper layers. Therefore, we suggest that the subalpine Abies community has a nutrient acquisition strategy that allows uptake of more nutrients near the surface in shallow soils due to the larger investment in biomass and more active metabolism, but not due to phenotypic plasticity in fine root morphology. In addition, we observed that fine root biomass changed with stand development, where specific root length was greater in sapling stands than in older stands.     

Trait coordination and environmental filters shape functional trait distributions of forest understory herbs

1. Understanding the drivers of trait selection is critical for resolving community assembly processes. Here, we test the importance of environmental filtering and trait covariance for structuring the functional traits of understory herbaceous communities distributed along a natural environmental resource gradient that varied in soil moisture, temperature, and nitrogen availability, produced by different topographic positions in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
2. To uncover potential differences in community‐level trait responses to the resource gradient, we quantified the averages and variances of both abundance‐weighted and unweighted values for six functional traits (vegetative height, leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf nitrogen, and leaf δ¹³C) using 15 individuals of each of the 108 species of understory herbs found at two sites in the southern Appalachians of western North Carolina, USA.
3. Environmental variables were better predictors of weighted than unweighted community‐level average trait values for all but height and leaf N, indicating strong environmental filtering of plant abundance. Community‐level variance patterns also showed increased convergence of abundance‐weighted traits as resource limitation became more severe.
4. Functional trait covariance patterns based on weighted averages were uniform across the gradient, whereas coordination based on unweighted averages was inconsistent and varied with environmental context. In line with these results, structural equation modeling revealed that unweighted community‐average traits responded directly to local environmental variation, whereas weighted community‐average traits responded indirectly to local environmental variation through trait coordination.
5. Our finding that trait coordination is more important for explaining the distribution of weighted than unweighted average trait values along the gradient indicates that environmental filtering acts on multiple traits simultaneously, with abundant species possessing more favorable combinations of traits for maximizing fitness in a given environment.

     

Phenotypic plasticity of four Chenopodiaceae species with contrasting saline–sodic tolerance in response to increased salinity–sodicity

It is unknown whether phenotypic plasticity in fitness‐related traits is associated with salinity–sodicity tolerance. This study compared growth and allocation phenotypic plasticity in two species with low salinity–sodicity tolerance (Chenopodium acuminatum and C. stenophyllum) and two species with high salinity–sodicity tolerance (Suaeda glauca and S. salsa) in a pot experiment in the Songnen grassland, China. While the species with low tolerance had higher growth and allocation plasticity than the highly tolerant species, the highly tolerant species only adjusted their growth traits and maintained higher fitness (e.g., plant height and total biomass) in response to increased soil salinity–sodicity, with low biomass allocation plasticity. Most plasticity is “apparent” plasticity (ontogenetic change), and only a few traits, for example, plant height:stem diameter ratio and root:shoot biomass ratio, represent “real” plasticity (real change in response to the environment). Our results show that phenotypic plasticity was negatively correlated with saline–sodic tolerance and could be used as an index of species sensitivity to soil salinity–sodicity.     

Belowground responses of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Picea asperata</Emphasis> seedlings to warming and nitrogen fertilization in the eastern Tibetan Plateau

The impacts of global climatic change on belowground ecological processes of terrestrial ecosystems are still not clear. We therefore conducted an experiment in the subalpine coniferous forest ecosystem of the eastern edges of the Tibetan Plateau to study roots of Picea asperata seedlings and rhizosphere soil responses to soil warming and nitrogen availability from April 2007 to December 2008. The seedlings were subjected to two levels of temperature (ambient; infrared heater warming) and two nitrogen levels (0 or 25 g m⁻²year⁻¹ N). We used a free air temperature increase from an overhead infrared heater to raise both air and soil temperature by 2.1 and 2.6°C, respectively. The results showed that warming alone significantly increased total biomass, coarse root biomass and fine root biomass of P. asperata seedlings. Both total biomass and fine root biomass were increased, but coarse root biomass was significantly decreased by nitrogen fertilization and warming combined with nitrogen fertilization. Warming induced a prominent increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) and NO₃ ⁻-N of rhizosphere soil, while nitrogen fertilization significantly decreased SOC and NH₄ ⁺-N of rhizosphere soil. The warming, fertilization and warming × N fertilization interaction decreased soil microbial C significantly, but substantially increased soil microbial N. These results suggest that nitrogen deposition combined with warmer temperatures under future climatic change possibly will have no effect on fine root production of P. asperata seedlings, but could enhance the nitrification process of their rhizosphere soils in subalpine coniferous forests.     

Unlocking the potential of historical abundance datasets to study biomass change in flying insects

1. Trends in insect abundance are well established in some datasets, but far less is known about how abundance measures translate into biomass trends. Moths (Lepidoptera) provide particularly good opportunities to study trends and drivers of biomass change at large spatial and temporal scales, given the existence of long‐term abundance datasets. However, data on the body masses of moths are required for these analyses, but such data do not currently exist.
2. To address this data gap, we collected empirical data in 2018 on the forewing length and dry mass of field‐sampled moths, and used these to train and test a statistical model that predicts the body mass of moth species from their forewing lengths (with refined parameters for Crambidae, Erebidae, Geometridae and Noctuidae).
3. Modeled biomass was positively correlated, with high explanatory power, with measured biomass of moth species (R² = 0.886 ± 0.0006, across 10,000 bootstrapped replicates) and of mixed‐species samples of moths (R² = 0.873 ± 0.0003), showing that it is possible to predict biomass to an informative level of accuracy, and prediction error was smaller with larger sample sizes.
4. Our model allows biomass to be estimated for historical moth abundance datasets, and so our approach will create opportunities to investigate trends and drivers of insect biomass change over long timescales and broad geographic regions.