Disentangling the Effects of Root Foraging and Inherent Growth Rate on Plant Biomass Accumulation in Heterogeneous Environments: A Modelling Study

Empirical evidence indicates that fast-growing species generallydisplay a higher degree of selective root placement in heterogeneousenvironments than slow-growing species. Such root foraging isaccomplished by root morphological responses, but since somemorphological responses are simply the result of enhanced growthof the roots in the enriched patch it is difficult to separatethe effects of root foraging and growth rate on the biomassaccumulation of species in heterogeneous environments. Herea simple model is presented to disentangle these effects. Rootforaging is incorporated as the selective allocation of rootbiomass per unit time to the nitrogen-rich patch. Growth ratedifferences among the model plants result from differences innitrogen utilization efficiency. In the model, the degree ofselective root placement can be varied independently of growthrate. The model shows that when plants are compared at a commonpoint in time, selective root placement and growth rate interactpositively with respect to the enhancement of plant biomassaccumulation in heterogeneous compared to homogeneous environments.However, by evaluating the model at a common plant biomass,the main and interactive effects of growth rate are eliminated.These results suggest that growth rate by itself does not conferan advantage in terms of resource acquisition and biomass accumulationin heterogeneous environments. Only the selective placementof resource acquiring structures (such as roots) leads to suchbenefits. The essential differences between foraging and growth,as well as the consequences of differences in foraging abilityand growth rate between species on competition for a limitedresource, are discussed. Copyright 1999 Annals of Botany Company Environmental heterogeneity, foraging, growth rate, model, nitrogen uptake, nitrogen utilization, patchiness, plant growth, plasticity, root placement.