Multi-dimensionality in plant root traits: progress and challenges

作者：Jiabao Zhao, Binglin Guo, Yueshuang Hou, Qingpei Yang, Zhipei Feng, Yong Zhao, Xitian Yang, Guoqiang Fan, Deliang Kong · 发表于：Journal of Plant Ecology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1093/jpe/rtae043 · 被引用次数：35 · 研究领域：Greenhouse Technology and Climate Control、Crop Yield and Soil Fertility、Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals

Plant roots, the major agent for water and nutrient acquisition, are fundamental for plant growth, evolution and ecosystem services that human beings depend on (Bardgett et al. 2014; Weigelt et al. 2023). Nutrient acquisition can be depicted by a wealth of traits of absorptive roots, the few terminal root branch orders with primarily developed tissues (Guo et al. 2008; McCormack et al. 2015). All our discussion in this perspective paper refers to the absorptive roots. For example, a frequently used database, Global Root Traits (GRooT), includes 38 core root functional traits with over 110 000 normalized trait measurements (Guerrero-Ramírez et al. 2021); the Fine-Root Ecology Database (FRED) currently includes more than 330 root functional traits and over 150 000 trait observations (Iversen and McCormack 2021). Both the above trait databases include great variations in root traits, especially those in root morphology. Absorptive root diameter (RD), one of the key morphological traits related to root function, has a great interspecific variation over 100-fold (Zhang et al. 2024a). Identifying a few key dimensions for root trait variation is one of the overarching aims of plant root ecologists (Cusack et al. 2021; Dallstream et al. 2023). These key root trait dimensions are fundamental to our understanding of plant adaptation to heterogeneous environments, species coexistence and responses to climatic change. For example, different combinations of root traits in different dimens...