Tradeoffs and Synergies in Tropical Forest Root Traits and Dynamics for Nutrient and Water Acquisition: Field and Modeling Advances
Type | Article | ||||||||||||
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Date | 2021-12 | ||||||||||||
Language | English | ||||||||||||
Author(s) | Cusack Daniela Francis1, 2, Addo-Danso Shalom D.3, Agee Elizabeth A.4, Andersen Kelly M.5, Arnaud Marie6, 7, Batterman Sarah A.2, 8, 9, Brearley Francis Q.10, Ciochina Mark I.11, Cordeiro Amanda L.1, Dallstream Caroline12, Diaz-Toribio Milton H.13, Dietterich Lee H.1, Fisher Joshua B.14, 15, Fleischer Katrin16, Fortunel Claire17, Fuchslueger Lucia18, Guerrero-Ramírez Nathaly R.19, Kotowska Martyna M.20, Lugli Laynara Figueiredo21, Marín Cesar22, 23, McCulloch Lindsay A.24, Maeght Jean-Luc17, Metcalfe Dan25, Norby Richard J.26, Oliveira Rafael S.27, Powers Jennifer S.28, 29, Reichert Tatiana30, Smith Stuart W.5, Smith-Martin Chris M.31, Soper Fiona M.12, Toro Laura, Umaña Maria N.28, 29, Valverde-Barrantes Oscar32, Weemstra Monique33, Werden Leland K.34, Wong Michelle8, Wright Cynthia L.4, Wright Stuart Joseph2, Yaffar Daniela4, 26 | ||||||||||||
Affiliation(s) | 1 : Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States 2 : Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama 3 : CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana 4 : Environmental Sciences Division, Climate Change Sciences Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, United States 5 : Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore 6 : IFREMER, Laboratoire Environnement et Ressources des Pertuis Charentais (LER-PC), La Tremblade, France 7 : School of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom 8 : Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, United States 9 : School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom 10 : Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom 11 : Department of Geography, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States 12 : Department of Biology, Bieler School of Environment, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada 13 : Jardín Botánico Francisco Javier Clavijero, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico 14 : Schmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States 15 : Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States 16 : Department Biogeochemical Signals, Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany 17 : AMAP (botAnique et Modélisation de l’Architecture des Plantes et des Végétations), Université de Montpellier, CIRAD, CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Montpellier, France 18 : Centre of Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 19 : Biodiversity, Macroecology, and Biogeography, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany 20 : Plant Ecology and Ecosystems Research, Albrecht von Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany 21 : Coordination of Environmental Dynamics, National Institute of Amazonian Research, Manaus, Brazil 22 : Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 23 : Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Prùhonice, Czechia 24 : Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, United States 25 : Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden 26 : Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, United States 27 : Department of Plant Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil 28 : Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States 29 : Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States 30 : School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich, Freising, Germany 31 : Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States 32 : Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States 33 : Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Environment, International Center of Tropical Biodiversity, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States 34 : Lyon Arboretum, University of Hawaii at Mânoa, Honolulu, HI, United States |
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Source | Frontiers In Forests And Global Change (2624-893X) (Frontiers Media SA), 2021-12 , Vol. 4 , P. 704469 (36p.) | ||||||||||||
DOI | 10.3389/ffgc.2021.704469 | ||||||||||||
WOS© Times Cited | 17 | ||||||||||||
Keyword(s) | fertility, drought, phosphorus, base cations, uptake, resource limitation, tropical forest, vegetation models | ||||||||||||
Abstract | Vegetation processes are fundamentally limited by nutrient and water availability, the uptake of which is mediated by plant roots in terrestrial ecosystems. While tropical forests play a central role in global water, carbon, and nutrient cycling, we know very little about tradeoffs and synergies in root traits that respond to resource scarcity. Tropical trees face a unique set of resource limitations, with rock-derived nutrients and moisture seasonality governing many ecosystem functions, and nutrient versus water availability often separated spatially and temporally. Root traits that characterize biomass, depth distributions, production and phenology, morphology, physiology, chemistry, and symbiotic relationships can be predictive of plants’ capacities to access and acquire nutrients and water, with links to aboveground processes like transpiration, wood productivity, and leaf phenology. In this review, we identify an emerging trend in the literature that tropical fine root biomass and production in surface soils are greatest in infertile or sufficiently moist soils. We also identify interesting paradoxes in tropical forest root responses to changing resources that merit further exploration. For example, specific root length, which typically increases under resource scarcity to expand the volume of soil explored, instead can increase with greater base cation availability, both across natural tropical forest gradients and in fertilization experiments. Also, nutrient additions, rather than reducing mycorrhizal colonization of fine roots as might be expected, increased colonization rates under scenarios of water scarcity in some forests. Efforts to include fine root traits and functions in vegetation models have grown more sophisticated over time, yet there is a disconnect between the emphasis in models characterizing nutrient and water uptake rates and carbon costs versus the emphasis in field experiments on measuring root biomass, production, and morphology in response to changes in resource availability. Closer integration of field and modeling efforts could connect mechanistic investigation of fine-root dynamics to ecosystem-scale understanding of nutrient and water cycling, allowing us to better predict tropical forest-climate feedbacks. |
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