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- B43M-2094: Contrasting depth dependencies of root presence and root mass underscore prolific root-regolith interactions (invited)
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Board 2094‚ Hall EFG (Poster Hall)NOLA CC
Author(s):Generic 'disconnected' Message
Sharon Billings, University of Kansas (First Author, Presenting Author)
Pamela Sullivan, Oregon State University
Li Li, Pennsylvania State University Main Campus
Jesse Nippert, Kansas State University
Daniel Hirmas, Texas Tech University
Hoori Ajami, University of California, Riverside
Kamini Singha, Colorado School of Mines
Alejandro Flores, Boise State University
Whendee Silver, University of California Berkeley
Emma Hauser, University of Wisconsin Madison
Micah Unruh, University of Kansas
Ligia Souza, Colorado State University
Jon Chorover, University of Arizona
Emma Aronson, University of California Riverside
Daniel Richter, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University
Stephen Hart, University of California Merced
Jacqueline Gerson, Cornell University
Ilaria Baneschi, CNR Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources
Alexander Ederer, University of Arizona
William McDowell, University of New Hampshire
Rachel Keen, University of Kansas
Timothy White, Pennsylvania State University Main Campus
Ashlee Dere, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Rachel Gallery, University of Arizona
Daniel Markewitz, University of Georgia
Kathleen Lohse, Idaho State University
Roots and the microbes that live around them create acid that helps create and transform soil, exude compounds that promote availability of nutrients, and modify soil structure in ways that govern water and gas flows. Changes in root abundance with depth are usually depicted using root mass. We present data from 75 soil pits around the US and Europe showing how root presence, not mass, changes with depth in many different ecosystems. We calculate how these two indices of root abundance differ deep in the subsurface, and demonstrate how wet and warm environments harbor vegetation whose deep roots tend to display little mass but occupy a great proportion of relatively deep soil volume. Our work emphasizes a more realistic way of conceptualizing the degree to which deep soil is occupied by roots than root-mass depth distributions can offer. This is especially true for fine roots, which weigh little in spite of great abundance. We also highlight how models assuming steep declines in root abundance with depth, implied by mass data, fail to capture the extent of root occupancy of soil volume, and thus may underestimate root-soil interactions that drive critical ecosystem features like nutrient transformations, water storage, and soil depth.
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