Accounting for fine root mass sample losses in the washing process: a case study from a tropical montane forest of Colombia

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Fine roots are very important in ecology because of their role in nutrient and water uptake, and as a source of organic matter to the soil. In carbon-cycle models, fine roots are a significant organic matter pool (Potter 1999) with high net primary productivity (Jackson et al. 1997) and turnover (Gill & Jackson 2000). In ecosystem production studies, fine roots are usually divided between biomass and necromass.The sum of both pools is defined as root mass (Klinge & Herrera 1978) or total root biomass (Böhm 1979). In tropical forests the study of fine-root biomass is restricted because of the difficulties in distinguishing live roots. Visual methodologies are not adequate in tropical forests where high diversity is expressed through many root morphologies. On the other hand, definitions of root death are ambiguous and differ between different studies (Comas et al. 2000). Fine-root mass is easier and more accurate to measure than fine-root biomass because subjective selection criteria are avoided. However, in the measurement of below-ground production, the estimation of fine-root biomass is essential (Jackson et al. 1997). The adaptation of objective selection methods (Comas et al. 2000, Joslin & Henderson 1984) to measure live and dead root fractions is urgently needed.