Climate, soil and plant functional types as drivers of global fine-root trait variation
2017
Freschet, Grégoire | Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar J. | Tucker, Caroline M. | Craine, Joseph M. | Mccormack, M. Luke | Violle, Cyrille | Fort, Florian | Blackwood, Christopher B. | Urban-Mead, Katherine R. | Iversen, Colleen M. | Bonis, Anne | Comas, Louise H. | Cornelissen, Johannes H. C. | Dong, Ming | Guo, Dali | Hobbie, Sarah E. | Holdaway, Robert J. | Kembel, Steven W. | Makita, Naoki | Onipchenko, Vladimir G. | Picon-Cochard, Catherine | Reich, Peter B. | Riva, Enrique G., de La | Smith, Stuart W. | Soudzilovskaia, Nadejda A. | Tjoelker, Mark G. | Wardle, David A. | Roumet, Catherine | Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE) ; Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 (UPVM)-Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques (Montpellier SupAgro)-École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE) ; Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD [Occitanie])-Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier (Montpellier SupAgro) | University of Minnesota System (UMN) | AGroécologie, Innovations, teRritoires (AGIR) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP) ; Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse)-Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse (Comue de Toulouse) | Department of Biological Sciences [Kent] ; Kent State University | Environmental Sciences Division [Oak Ridge] ; Oak Ridge National Laboratory [Oak Ridge] (ORNL) ; UT-Battelle, LLC-UT-Battelle, LLC | Ecosystèmes, biodiversité, évolution [Rennes] (ECOBIO) ; Université de Rennes (UR)-Institut Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS Ecologie et Environnement (INEE-CNRS) ; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) | Key Laboratory of Hangzhou City for Ecosystem Protection and Restoration ; Zhangzhou Normal University | State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change (LVEC) ; Institute of Botany [Beijing] (IB-CAS) ; Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing] (CAS)-Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing] (CAS) | Geobotany, Moscow State University ; Moscow State University | Unité Mixte de Recherche sur l'Ecosystème Prairial - UMR (UREP) ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA)-VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement (VAS) | Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment [Richmond] (HIE) ; Western Sydney University | Department of Systems Ecology ; Universiteit van Amsterdam = University of Amsterdam (UvA) | Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences = Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) | EU's Research Executive Agency, Marie Curie Actions. Grant Number: 657951, European Research Council. Grant Number: ERC-StG-2014-639706-CONSTRAINTS, Biological and Environmental Research program, U.S. Department of Energy's, Office of Science. Grant Number: 14-50-00029, Russian Science Foundation (RNF) | European Project: 639706,ERC-2014-STG,ERC-2014-STG,CONSTRAINTS(2015) | European Project: 657951,H2020-MSCA-IF-2014,H2020-MSCA-IF-2014,RareFunctions(2016)
International audience
Show more [+] Less [-]English. 1.Ecosystem functioning relies heavily on belowground processes, which are largely regulated by plant fine-roots and their functional traits. However, our knowledge of fine-root trait distribution relies to date on local- and regional-scale studies with limited numbers of species, growth forms and environmental variation. 2.We compiled a worldwide fine-root trait dataset, featuring 1115 species from contrasting climatic areas, phylogeny and growth forms to test a series of hypotheses pertaining to the influence of plant functional types, soil and climate variables, and the degree of manipulation of plant growing conditions on species fine-root trait variation. Most particularly, we tested the competing hypotheses that fine-root traits typical of faster return on investment would be most strongly associated with conditions of limiting versus favourable soil resource availability. We accounted for both data source and species phylogenetic relatedness. 3.We demonstrate that (1) Climate conditions promoting soil fertility relate negatively to fine-root traits favouring fast soil resource acquisition, with a particularly strong positive effect of temperature on fine-root diameter and negative effect on specific root length (SRL), and a negative effect of rainfall on root nitrogen concentration; (2) Soil bulk density strongly influences species fine-root morphology, by favouring thicker, denser fine-roots; (3) Fine-roots from herbaceous species are on average finer and have higher SRL than those of woody species, and N2-fixing capacity positively relates to root nitrogen; (4) Plants growing in pots have higher SRL than those grown in the field. 4.Synthesis. This study reveals both the large variation in fine-root traits encountered globally and the relevance of several key plant functional types and soil and climate variables for explaining a substantial part of this variation. Climate, particularly temperature, and plant functional types were the two strongest predictors of fine-root trait variation. High trait variation occurred at local scales, suggesting that wide-ranging belowground resource economics strategies are viable within most climatic areas and soil conditions.
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