Decoupling of uptake‐ and transport‐related traits in absorptive roots across coexisting herbaceous species in alpine meadows

作者：Zhi Zheng, Cong Wang, Yidi Wang, Yurui Zhang, Oscar J. Valverde‐Barrantes, Wenhao Zhang, Deliang Kong · 发表于：Journal of Ecology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1111/1365-2745.14268 · 被引用次数：20 · 研究领域：Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions、Plant nutrient uptake and metabolism、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Abstract The anatomical structure of roots determines their function. Coexisting species complementarily forage nutrients by roots themselves (e.g. root strategy) and their fungal partners (e.g. mycorrhizal strategy), leading to a trade‐off between root strategy and mycorrhizal strategy. However, few studies have specifically evaluated whether and how the root anatomical structures are involved in this trade‐off, especially for species in alpine ecosystems limited by extreme climate. Here, absorptive root anatomical and chemical traits and three key root traits commonly associated with nutrient foraging strategies, that is root strategy indicated by first‐order root length and root branching intensity and mycorrhizal strategy indicated by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal colonization, were examined across 68 herbaceous species in alpine meadows of the Tibetan Plateau. We observed that absorptive roots with higher branching intensity had more protoxylem poles, thinner cortices and smaller cortical cells, whereas absorptive roots with higher mycorrhizal colonization and longer first‐order roots consistently had thicker cortices and larger cortical cells. Unexpectedly, root cortical traits responsible for nutrient uptake were decoupled from stelar traits specialized in water and nutrient transportation. The decoupling may be related to the non‐coordinated changes in soil water and nutrient availability in the meadows of the Tibetan Plateau. In addition, we found that root cortical ...