Response strategies of fine root morphology of Cupressus funebris to the different soil environment

Xiaochen Wen; Xiao Wang; Mengting Ye; Hai Liu; Wenchun He; Yu Wang; Tianyi Li; Kuangji Zhao; Guirong Hou; Gang Chen; Xianwei Li; Chuan Fan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1077090

Response strategies of fine root morphology of Cupressus funebris to the different soil environment

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Dec 21:13:1077090. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1077090. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiaochen Wen¹, Xiao Wang¹, Mengting Ye¹, Hai Liu¹, Wenchun He¹, Yu Wang¹, Tianyi Li¹, Kuangji Zhao^{1

2}, Guirong Hou^{1

2}, Gang Chen^{1

2}, Xianwei Li^{1

2}, Chuan Fan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Forestry, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China.
² National Forestry and Grassland Administration Key Laboratory of Forest Resources Conservation and Ecological Safety on the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River and Forestry Ecological Engineering in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Understanding fine root morphology is crucial to uncover water and nutrient acquisition and transposition of fine roots. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding how the soil environment affects the fine root morphology of various root orders in the stable forest ecosystem. Therefore, this experiment assessed the response strategies of fine root morphology (first- to fifth -order fine roots) in four different soil environments. The results showed that fine root morphology was related to soil environment, and there were significant differences in specific root length (SRL), specific surface area (SRA), diameter (D), and root tissue density (RTD) of first- and second -order fine roots. Soil total nitrogen (TN), alkaline nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were positively correlated with SRL and SRA and negatively correlated with D and RTD. Soil moisture (SW) was positively correlated with the D and RTD of first- and second-order fine roots and negatively correlated with the SRL and SRA. Soil temperature (ST), organic carbon (OC), soil bulk density (SBD) and soil porosity (SP) were not significantly correlated with the D, SRL, SRA, and RTD of the first- and second -order fine roots. AN was positively correlated with SRL and SRA and negatively correlated with both D and RTD in the first- and second -order fine roots, and the correlation coefficient was very significant. Therefore, we finally concluded that soil AN was the most critical factor affecting root D, SRL, SRA and RTD of fine roots, and mainly affected the morphology of first- and second -order fine roots. In conclusion, our research provides support for understanding the relationship between fine root morphology and soil environment, and indicates that soil nutrient gradient forms good root morphology at intraspecific scale.

Keywords: Cupressus funebris; fine root; morphological plasticity; response strategy; root order; soil environment.