Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T13:20:37.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Temporal and spatial variation of fine roots in a northern Australian Eucalyptus tetrodonta savanna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

David P. Janos ,
John Scott  and
David M. J. S. Bowman
David P. Janos*
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannas, Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, PO Box 496 Palmerston, Northern Territory 0831Australia
John Scott
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannas, Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, PO Box 496 Palmerston, Northern Territory 0831Australia
David M. J. S. Bowman
Affiliation:
Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannas, Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, PO Box 496 Palmerston, Northern Territory 0831Australia
*
1Corresponding author: Department of Biology, University of Miami, P.O. Box 249118, Coral Gables, Florida 33124-0421, USA; email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Six rhizotrons in an Eucalyptus tetrodonta savanna revealed seasonal changes in the abundance of fine roots (≤ 5 mm diameter). Fine roots were almost completely absent from the upper 1 m of soil during the dry season, but proliferated after the onset of wet-season rains. At peak abundance of 3.9 kg m−2 soil surface, fine roots were distributed relatively uniformly throughout 1 m depth, in contrast with many tropical savannas and tropical dry forests in which fine roots are most abundant near the soil surface. After 98% of cumulative annual rainfall had been received, fine roots began to disappear rapidly, such that 76 d later, less than 5.8% of peak abundance remained. The scarcity of fine roots in the upper 1 m of soil early in the dry season suggests that evergreen trees may be able to extract water from below 1 m throughout the dry season. Persistent deep roots together with abundant fine roots in the upper 1 m of soil during the wet season constitute a ‘dual’ root system. Deep roots might buffer atmospheric CO2 against increase by sequestering carbon at depth in the soil.

Keywords

open forestrhizotronroot depth profileroot-length densityroot phenologysavanna woodlandsmall rootstraced root abundance
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , March 2008 , pp. 177 - 188
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

ANDRADE DE CASTRO, E. & KAUFFMAN, J. B. 1998. Ecosystem structure in the Brazilian Cerrado: a vegetation gradient of aboveground biomass, root mass and consumption by fire. Journal of Tropical Ecology 14:263–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ARUNCHALAM, A., PANDEY, H. N., TRIPATHI, R. S. & MAITHANI, K. 1996. Biomass and production of fine and coarse roots during regrowth of a disturbed subtropical humid forest in north-east India. Vegetatio 123:73–80.Google Scholar
ATKINSON, D. 1985. Spatial and temporal aspects of root distribution as indicated by the use of a root observation laboratory. Pp. 43–65 in Fitter, A. H., Atkinson, D., Read, D. J. & Usher, M. B. (eds.). Ecological interactions in soil. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
BATES, N. H. & SOMBROEK, W. G. 1997. Possibilities for carbon sequestration in tropical and subtropical soils. Global Change Biology 3:161–173.Google Scholar
BOWMAN, D. M. J. S. & MINCHIN, P. R. 1987. Environmental relationships of woody vegetation patterns in the Australian monsoon tropics. Australian Journal of Botany 35:151–169.Google Scholar
BOWMAN, D. M. J. S. & PRIOR, L. D. 2005. Why do evergreen trees dominate the Australian seasonal tropics? Australian Journal of Botany 53:379–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CALDWELL, M. M., DAWSON, T. E. & RICHARDS, J. H. 1998. Hydraulic lift: consequences of water efflux from the roots of plants. Oecologia 113:151–161.Google Scholar
CAMPO, J., JARAMILLO, V. J. & MAASS, J. M. 1998. Pulses of soil phosphorus availability in a Mexican tropical dry forest: effects of seasonality and level of wetting. Oecologia 115:167–172.Google Scholar
CANADELL, J., JACKSON, R. B., EHLERINGER, J. R., MOONEY, H. A., SALA, O. E. & SCHULZE, E.-D. 1996. Maximum rooting depth of vegetation types at the global scale. Oecologia 108:583–595.Google Scholar
CASTELLANOS, J., MAAS, M. & KUMMEROW, J. 1991. Root biomass of a dry deciduous tropical forest in Mexico. Plant and Soil 131:225–228.Google Scholar
CAVELIER, J. 1992. Fine-root biomass and soil properties in a semideciduous and a lower montane rain forest in Panama. Plant and Soil 142:187–201.Google Scholar
CAVELIER, J., WRIGHT, S. J. & SANTAMARÍA, J. 1999. Effects of irrigation on litterfall, fine root biomass and production in a semideciduous lowland forest in Panama. Plant and Soil 211:207–213.Google Scholar
CHEN, X., EAMUS, D. & HUTLEY, L. B. 2002. Seasonal patterns of soil carbon dioxide efflux from a wet–dry tropical savanna of northern Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 50:43–51.Google Scholar
CHEN, X., HUTLEY, L. B. & EAMUS, D. 2003. Carbon balance of a tropical savanna of northern Australia. Oecologia 137:405–416.Google Scholar
CHEN, X., EAMUS, D. & HUTLEY, L. B. 2004. Seasonal patterns of fine-root productivity and turnover in a tropical savanna of northern Australia. Journal of Tropical Ecology 20:221– 224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CÔTÉ, B., HENDERSHOT, W. H., FYLES, J. W., ROY, R. G., BRADLEY, R., BIRON, P. M. & COURCHESNE, F. 1998. The phenology of fine root growth in a maple-dominated ecosystem: relationships with some soil properties. Plant and Soil 201:59–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DAVIDSON, E. A. & TRUMBORE, S. E. 1995. Gas diffusivity and production of CO2 in deep soils of the eastern Amazon. Tellus 47B:550–565.Google Scholar
DAVIDSON, E. A., MATSON, P. A., VITOUSEK, P. M., RILEY, R., DUNKIN, K., GARCIA-MENDEZ, G. & MAASS, J. M. 1993. Processes regulating soil emissions of NO and N2O in a seasonally dry tropical forest. Ecology 74:130–139.Google Scholar
DAWSON, T. E. & PATE, J. S. 1996. Seasonal water uptake and movement in root systems of Australian phraeatophytic plants of dimorphic root morphology: a stable isotope investigation. Oecologia 107:13–20.Google Scholar
DELL, B., BARTLE, J. R. & TACEY, W. H. 1983. Root occupation and root channels of jarrah forest subsoils. Australian Journal of Botany 31:615–627.Google Scholar
DUFF, G. A., MYERS, B. A., WILLIAMS, R. J., EAMUS, D., O'GRADY, A. & FORDYCE, I. R. 1997. Seasonal patterns in soil moisture, vapour pressure deficit, tree canopy cover and pre-dawn water potential in a northern Australian savanna. Australian Journal of Botany 45:211–224.Google Scholar
EAMUS, D., MYERS, B. A., DUFF, G. A. & WILLIAMS, R. J. 1999. Seasonal changes in photosynthesis of eight savanna tree species. Tree Physiology 19:665–671.Google Scholar
EAMUS, D., CHEN, X., KELLEY, G. & HUTLEY, L. B. 2002. Root biomass and root fractal analyses of an open Eucalyptus forest in a savanna of north Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 50:31–41.Google Scholar
FISHER, M. J., RAO, I. M., AYARZA, M. A., LASCANO, C. E., SANZ, J. I., THOMAS, R. J. & VERA, R. R. 1994. Carbon storage by introduced deep-rooted grasses in the South American savannas. Nature 371:236–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GALE, M. R. & GRIGAL, D. F. 1987. Vertical root distributions of northern tree species in relation to successional status. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 17:829–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GLINSKI, D. S., KARNOK, K. J. & CARROW, R. N. 1993. Comparison of reporting methods for root growth data from transparent-interface measurements. Crop Science 33:310–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GRACE, J., SAN JOSÉ, J., MEIR, P., MIRANDA, H. S. & MONTES, R. A. 2006. Productivity and carbon fluxes of tropical savannas. Journal of Biogeography 33:387–400.Google Scholar
HENDRICK, R. L. & PREGITZER, K. S. 1993. Patterns of fine root mortality in two sugar maple forests. Nature 361:59–61.Google Scholar
HUTLEY, L. B., O'GRADY, A. P. & EAMUS, D. 2000. Evapotranspiration from eucalypt open-forest savanna of Northern Australia. Functional Ecology 14:183–194.Google Scholar
JACKSON, R. B., CANADELL, J., EHLERINGER, J. R., MOONEY, H. A., SALA, O. E. & SCHULZE, E.-D. 1996. A global analysis of root distributions for terrestrial biomes. Oecologia 108:389–411.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
JACKSON, R. B., MOONEY, H. A. & SCHULZE, E.-D. 1997. A global budget for fine root biomass, surface area, and nutrient contents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 94:7362–7366.Google Scholar
JANOS, D. P. 1985. Mycorrhizal fungi: agents or symptoms of tropical community composition? Pp. 98–103 in Molina, R. (ed.). Proceedings of the 6th North American conference on mycorrhizas. Forest Research Laboratory, Oregon State University, Corvallis. 471 pp.Google Scholar
JANOS, D. P. 2007. Plant responsiveness to mycorrhizas differs from dependence upon mycorrhizas. Mycorrhiza 17:75–91.Google Scholar
JOHNSON, N. C., GRAHAM, J. H. & SMITH, F. A. 1997. Functioning of mycorrhizal associations along the mutualism-parasitism continuum. New Phytologist 135:575–586.Google Scholar
KASPAR, T. C. & EWING, R. P. 1997. ROOTEDGE: software for measuring root length from desktop scanner images. Agronomy Journal 89:932–940.Google Scholar
KAVANAGH, T. & KELLMAN, M. 1992. Seasonal pattern of fine root proliferation in a tropical dry forest. Biotropica 24:157–165.Google Scholar
KELLMAN, M. 1990. Root proliferation in recent and weathered sandy soils from Veracruz, Mexico. Journal of Tropical Ecology 6:355–370.Google Scholar
KIMBER, P. C. 1974. The root system of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata). Research Paper No. 10. Forests Department of Western Australia, Perth.Google Scholar
KNOOP, W. T. & WALKER, B. H. 1985. Interactions of woody and herbaceous vegetation in a southern African savanna. Journal of Ecology 73:235–253.Google Scholar
KUMMEROW, J., CASTILLANOS, J., MAASS, M. & LARIGAUDERIE, A. 1990. Production of fine roots and the seasonality of their growth in a Mexican deciduous dry forest. Vegetatio 90:75–80.Google Scholar
LAWSON, G. W., JENIK, J. & ARMSTRONG-MENSAH, K. O. 1968. A study of a vegetation catena in a guinea savanna at Mole Game Reserve (Ghana). Journal of Ecology 56:505–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAWSON, G. W., ARMSTRONG-MENSAH, K. O. & HALL, J. B. 1970. A catena in tropical moist semi-deciduous forest near Kade, Ghana. Journal of Ecology 58:371–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARKS, A. R. & JOLLY, P. 1987. Extreme corrosivity of Northern Territory coastal groundwater supplies – origin, effects and materials of construction. Australian Institute of Engineers Hydrology Conference, May 11–15, 1987, Darwin. 9 pp.Google Scholar
MENAUT, J. C. & CESAR, J. 1979. Structure and primary productivity of Lamto savannas, Ivory Coast. Ecology 60:1197–1210.Google Scholar
MORDELET, P., MENAUT, J.-C. & MARIOTTI, A. 1997. Tree and grass rooting patterns in an African humid savanna. Journal of Vegetation Science 8:65–70.Google Scholar
MURPHY, P. G. & LUGO, A. E. 1986. Structure and biomass of a subtropical dry forest in Puerto Rico. Biotropica 18:89–96.Google Scholar
MYERS, B. A., DUFF, G. A., EAMUS, D., FORDYCE, I. R., O'GRADY, A. & WILLIAMS, R. J. 1997. Seasonal variation in water relations of trees of differing leaf phenology in a wet-dry tropical savanna near Darwin, northern Australia. Australian Journal of Botany 45:225– 240.Google Scholar
MYERS, B. A., WILLIAMS, R. J., FORDYCE, I., DUFF, G. A. & EAMUS, D. 1998. Does irrigation affect leaf phenology in deciduous and evergreen trees of the savannas of northern Australia? Australian Journal of Ecology 23:329–339.Google Scholar
NEPSTAD, D. C., DE CARVALHO, C. R., DAVIDSON, E. A., JIPP, P. H., LEFEBVRE, P. A., NEGREIROS, G. H., DA SILVA, E. D., STONE, T. A., TRUMBORE, S. E. & VIEIRA, S. 1994. The role of deep roots in the hydrological and carbon cycles of Amazonian forests and pastures. Nature 372:666–669.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'GRADY, A. P., EAMUS, D. & HUTLEY, L. B. 1999. Transpiration increases during the dry season: patterns of tree water use in eucalypt open-forests of northern Australia. Tree Physiology 19:591– 597.Google Scholar
OKALI, D. U. U., HALL, J. B. & LAWSON, G. W. 1973. Root distribution under a thicket clump on the Accra Plains, Ghana: its relevance to clump localization and water relations. Journal of Ecology 61:439–454.Google Scholar
PANDEY, C. B. & SINGH, J. S. 1992. Influence of rainfall and grazing on belowground biomass dynamics in a dry tropical savanna. Canadian Journal of Botany 70:1885–1890.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PERRY, D. A., MOLINA, R. & AMARANTHUS, M. P. 1987. Mycorrhizae, mycorrhizospheres, and reforestation: current knowledge and research needs. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 17:929–940.Google Scholar
PIERRET, A., MORAN, C. J. & DOUSSAN, C. 2005. Conventional detection methodology is limiting our ability to understand the roles and functions of fine roots. New Phytologist 166:967–980.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
RAGHUBANSHI, A. S., SRIVASTAVA, S. C., SINGH, R. S. & SINGH, J. S. 1990. Nutrient release in leaf litter. Nature 346:227.Google Scholar
REDDELL, P. & MILNES, A. R. 1992. Mycorrhizas and other specialized nutrient-acquisition strategies: their occurrence in woodland plants from Kakadu and their role in rehabilitation of waste rock dumps at a local uranium mine. Australian Journal of Botany 40:223– 242.Google Scholar
RICHEY, J. E., MELACK, J. M., AUFDENKAMPE, A. K., BALLESTER, V. M. & HESS, L. L. 2002. Outgassing from Amazonian rivers and wetlands as a large tropical source of atmospheric CO2. Nature 416:617– 620.Google Scholar
ROY, S. & SINGH, J. S. 1995. Seasonal and spatial dynamics of plant-available N and P pools and N-mineralization in relation to fine roots in a dry tropical forest habitat. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 27:33–40.Google Scholar
RUTHERFORD, M. C. 1983. Growth rates, biomass and distribution of selected woody plant roots in Burkea africana – Ochna pulchra savanna. Vegetatio 52:45–63.Google Scholar
SÁNCHEZ-GALLÉN, I. & ALVAREZ-SÁNCHEZ, J. 1996. Root productivity in a lowland tropical rain forest in Mexico. Vegetatio 123:109–115.Google Scholar
SCHOLES, R. J. & WALKER, B. H. (eds.). 1993. An African savanna. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 318 pp.Google Scholar
SCURLOCK, J. M. O. & HALL, D. O. 1998. The global carbon sink: a grassland perspective. Global Change Biology 4:229–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SINGH, J. S., RAGHUBANSHI, A. S., SINGH, R. S. & SRIVASTAVA, S. C. 1989. Microbial biomass acts as a source of plant nutrients in dry tropical forest and savanna. Nature 338:499–500.Google Scholar
SINGH, K. P. & SINGH, R. P. 1981. Seasonal variation in biomass and energy of small roots in tropical dry deciduous forest, Varanasi, India. Oikos 37:88–92.Google Scholar
SMIT, G. N. & RETHMAN, N. F. G. 1998. Root biomass, depth distribution and relations with leaf biomass of Colophospermum mopane. South African Journal of Botany 64:38–43.Google Scholar
SOMBROEK, W. G., NACHTERGAELE, F. O. & HEBEL, A. 1993. Amounts, dynamics and sequestering of carbon in tropical and subtropical soils. Ambio 22:417–426.Google Scholar
SRIVASTAVA, S. C. 1992. Microbial C, N and P in dry tropical soils: seasonal changes and influence of soil moisture. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 24:711–714.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SRIVASTAVA, S. K., SINGH, K. P. & UPADHYAY, R. S. 1986. Fine root growth dynamics in teak (Tectona grandis Linn. f.). Canadian Journal of Forest Research 16:1360–1364.Google Scholar
STONE, E. L. & KALISZ, P. J. 1991. On the maximum extent of tree roots. Forest Ecology and Management 46:59–102.Google Scholar
SUNDARAPANDIAN, S. M. & SWAMY, P. S. 1996. Fine root biomass distribution and productivity patterns under open and closed canopies of tropical forest ecosystems at Kodayar in Western Ghats, South India. Forest Ecology and Management 86:181–192.Google Scholar
TAYLOR, H. M. & KLEPPER, B. 1971. Water uptake by cotton roots during an irrigation cycle. Australian Journal of Biological Science 24:853–859.Google Scholar
TAYLOR, H. M., HUCK, M. G., KLEPPER, B. & LUND, Z. F. 1970. Measurement of soil-grown roots in a rhizotron. Agronomy Journal 62:807–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TRUMBORE, S. E., DAVIDSON, E. A., BARBOSA, P. C., NEPSTAD, D. C. & MARTINELLI, L. A. 1995. Belowground cycling of carbon in forests and pastures of Eastern Amazonia. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 9:515–528.Google Scholar
VISALAKSHI, N. 1994. Fine root dynamics in two tropical dry evergreen forests in southern India. Journal of Biosciences 19:103–116.Google Scholar
VOGT, K. A., VOGT, D. J. & BLOOMFIELD, J. 1998. Analysis of some direct and indirect methods for estimating root biomass and production of forests at an ecosystem level. Plant and Soil 200:71–89.Google Scholar
WERNER, P. A. & MURPHY, P. G. 2001. Size-specific biomass allocation and water content of above- and below-ground components of three Eucalyptus species in a northern Australian savanna. Australian Journal of Botany 49:155–167.Google Scholar
WIEDER, R. K. & WRIGHT, S. J. 1995. Tropical forest litter dynamics and dry season irrigation on Barro-Colorado Island, Panama. Ecology 76:1971–1979.Google Scholar
WILLIAMS, R. J., MYERS, B. A., MULLER, W. J., DUFF, G. A. & EAMUS, D. 1997. Leaf phenology of woody species in a north Australian tropical savanna. Ecology 78:2542–2558.Google Scholar
WILSON, B. A., BROCKLEHURST, P. S., CLARK, M. J. & DICKINSON, K. J. M. 1990. Vegetation survey of the Northern Territory, Australia. Technical Report No. 49. Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 222 pp.Google Scholar
WU, B.-X. 1991. Studies on the vertical structure of seasonal rain-forest in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan. Acta Botanica Sinica 33:232–239.Google Scholar
YAVITT, J. B. & WRIGHT, S. J. 2001. Drought and irrigation effects on fine root dynamics in a tropical moist forest, Panama. Biotropica 33:421–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ZHOU, G. Y., ZHOU, C. Y., LIU, S. G., TANG, X. L., OUYANG, X. J., ZHANG, D. Q., LIU, S. H., LIU, J. X., YAN, J. H., ZHOU, C. Y., LUO, Y., GUAN, L. & LIU, Y. 2006. Belowground carbon balance and carbon accumulation rate in the successional series of monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest. Science in China: Series D Earth Sciences 49:311–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar