Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska
Permafrost forests play an important role in the global carbon budget due to the huge amounts of carbon stored below ground in these ecosystems. Although fine roots are considered to be a major pathway of belowground carbon flux, separate contributions of overstory trees and understory shrubs to fin...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8635146 2023-05-15T13:03:09+02:00 Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska Noguchi, Kyotaro Matsuura, Yojiro Morishita, Tomoaki Toriyama, Jumpei Kim, Yongwon 2021-11-16 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635146/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 en eng Frontiers Media S.A. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635146/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 Copyright © 2021 Noguchi, Matsuura, Morishita, Toriyama and Kim. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. CC-BY Front Plant Sci Plant Science Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 2021-12-05T02:05:15Z Permafrost forests play an important role in the global carbon budget due to the huge amounts of carbon stored below ground in these ecosystems. Although fine roots are considered to be a major pathway of belowground carbon flux, separate contributions of overstory trees and understory shrubs to fine root dynamics in these forests have not been specifically characterized in relation to permafrost conditions, such as active layer thickness. In this study, we investigated fine root growth and morphology of trees and understory shrubs using ingrowth cores with two types of moss substrates (feather- and Sphagnum mosses) in permafrost black spruce (Picea mariana) stands along a north-facing slope in Interior Alaska, where active layer thickness varied substantially. Aboveground biomass, litterfall production rate, and fine root mass were also examined. Results showed that aboveground biomass, fine root mass, and fine root growth of black spruce trees tended to decrease downslope, whereas those of understory Ericaceae shrubs increased. Belowground allocation (e.g., ratio of fine root growth/leaf litter production) increased downslope in both of black spruce and understory plants. These results suggested that, at a lower slope, belowground resource availability was lower than at upper slope, but higher light availability under open canopy seemed to benefit the growth of the understory shrubs. On the other hand, understory shrubs were more responsive to the moss substrates than black spruce, in which Sphagnum moss substrates increased fine root growth of the shrubs as compared with feather moss substrates, whereas the effect was unclear for black spruce. This is probably due to higher moisture contents in Sphagnum moss substrates, which benefited the growth of small diameter (high specific root length) fine roots of understory shrubs. Hence, the contribution of understory shrubs to fine root growth was greater at lower slope than at upper slope, or in Sphagnum than in feather-moss substrates in our study site. Taken ... Text Active layer thickness permafrost Alaska PubMed Central (PMC) Frontiers in Plant Science 12 |
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Plant Science |
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Plant Science Noguchi, Kyotaro Matsuura, Yojiro Morishita, Tomoaki Toriyama, Jumpei Kim, Yongwon Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
topic_facet |
Plant Science |
description |
Permafrost forests play an important role in the global carbon budget due to the huge amounts of carbon stored below ground in these ecosystems. Although fine roots are considered to be a major pathway of belowground carbon flux, separate contributions of overstory trees and understory shrubs to fine root dynamics in these forests have not been specifically characterized in relation to permafrost conditions, such as active layer thickness. In this study, we investigated fine root growth and morphology of trees and understory shrubs using ingrowth cores with two types of moss substrates (feather- and Sphagnum mosses) in permafrost black spruce (Picea mariana) stands along a north-facing slope in Interior Alaska, where active layer thickness varied substantially. Aboveground biomass, litterfall production rate, and fine root mass were also examined. Results showed that aboveground biomass, fine root mass, and fine root growth of black spruce trees tended to decrease downslope, whereas those of understory Ericaceae shrubs increased. Belowground allocation (e.g., ratio of fine root growth/leaf litter production) increased downslope in both of black spruce and understory plants. These results suggested that, at a lower slope, belowground resource availability was lower than at upper slope, but higher light availability under open canopy seemed to benefit the growth of the understory shrubs. On the other hand, understory shrubs were more responsive to the moss substrates than black spruce, in which Sphagnum moss substrates increased fine root growth of the shrubs as compared with feather moss substrates, whereas the effect was unclear for black spruce. This is probably due to higher moisture contents in Sphagnum moss substrates, which benefited the growth of small diameter (high specific root length) fine roots of understory shrubs. Hence, the contribution of understory shrubs to fine root growth was greater at lower slope than at upper slope, or in Sphagnum than in feather-moss substrates in our study site. Taken ... |
format |
Text |
author |
Noguchi, Kyotaro Matsuura, Yojiro Morishita, Tomoaki Toriyama, Jumpei Kim, Yongwon |
author_facet |
Noguchi, Kyotaro Matsuura, Yojiro Morishita, Tomoaki Toriyama, Jumpei Kim, Yongwon |
author_sort |
Noguchi, Kyotaro |
title |
Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
title_short |
Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
title_full |
Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
title_fullStr |
Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fine Root Growth of Black Spruce Trees and Understory Plants in a Permafrost Forest Along a North-Facing Slope in Interior Alaska |
title_sort |
fine root growth of black spruce trees and understory plants in a permafrost forest along a north-facing slope in interior alaska |
publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635146/ https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 |
genre |
Active layer thickness permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
Active layer thickness permafrost Alaska |
op_source |
Front Plant Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635146/ http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2021 Noguchi, Matsuura, Morishita, Toriyama and Kim. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.769710 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Plant Science |
container_volume |
12 |
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1766329493599813632 |