Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes
The vertical root distribution (VRD) in the soil remains unknown for most plant species, as studying root systems in different pedo-climatic settings is time-consuming and methodologically challenging. Yet, information on the VRD of different vegetation types is essential to understand better the bi...
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ftunivtorino:oai:iris.unito.it:2318/1826841 2023-11-05T03:44:42+01:00 Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S. B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S.B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. 2021 http://hdl.handle.net/2318/1826841 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 eng eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000654354000013 volume:203 firstpage:105305 lastpage:105305 numberofpages:27 journal:CATENA http://hdl.handle.net/2318/1826841 doi:10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85108273610 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Alpine Data mining Ecohydrological Model Root info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2021 ftunivtorino https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 2023-10-10T22:29:11Z The vertical root distribution (VRD) in the soil remains unknown for most plant species, as studying root systems in different pedo-climatic settings is time-consuming and methodologically challenging. Yet, information on the VRD of different vegetation types is essential to understand better the biogeochemical processes occurring at the soil–plant-atmosphere continuum. The aim of this study was to describe the (VRD) of three dominant alpine, herbaceous plants (i.e. Euphrasia minima Jacq., Leucanthemopsis alpina L., and Poa alpina L.) on the basis of simple and easy-to-measure climate, soil, and plant attributes in order to test the validity of existing descriptive protocols and parametric ecohydrological models. The results showed that the VRD decreased with soil depth for the three plants and that it can be effectively described with a negative exponential equation. Key VRD parameters, such as the mean rooting depth, cross-sectional area at the root collar, and root biomass, were both site and species-specific but they were chiefly influenced by the attributes regulating the soil's water mass balance. The existing parametric ecohydrological models were not able to portray successfully the VRD of the studied alpine plants but we found a strong correlation between empirical and parametric VRD models that establish a clear direction for future research. Future work should address the influence of the snowpack characteristics and the length of the snow-free and frozen ground periods on the soil's ecohydrology and VRD in alpine ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Poa alpina Università degli studi di Torino: AperTo (Archivio Istituzionale ad Accesso Aperto) CATENA 203 105305 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Università degli studi di Torino: AperTo (Archivio Istituzionale ad Accesso Aperto) |
op_collection_id |
ftunivtorino |
language |
English |
topic |
Alpine Data mining Ecohydrological Model Root |
spellingShingle |
Alpine Data mining Ecohydrological Model Root Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S. B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
topic_facet |
Alpine Data mining Ecohydrological Model Root |
description |
The vertical root distribution (VRD) in the soil remains unknown for most plant species, as studying root systems in different pedo-climatic settings is time-consuming and methodologically challenging. Yet, information on the VRD of different vegetation types is essential to understand better the biogeochemical processes occurring at the soil–plant-atmosphere continuum. The aim of this study was to describe the (VRD) of three dominant alpine, herbaceous plants (i.e. Euphrasia minima Jacq., Leucanthemopsis alpina L., and Poa alpina L.) on the basis of simple and easy-to-measure climate, soil, and plant attributes in order to test the validity of existing descriptive protocols and parametric ecohydrological models. The results showed that the VRD decreased with soil depth for the three plants and that it can be effectively described with a negative exponential equation. Key VRD parameters, such as the mean rooting depth, cross-sectional area at the root collar, and root biomass, were both site and species-specific but they were chiefly influenced by the attributes regulating the soil's water mass balance. The existing parametric ecohydrological models were not able to portray successfully the VRD of the studied alpine plants but we found a strong correlation between empirical and parametric VRD models that establish a clear direction for future research. Future work should address the influence of the snowpack characteristics and the length of the snow-free and frozen ground periods on the soil's ecohydrology and VRD in alpine ecosystems. |
author2 |
Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S.B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S. B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. |
author_facet |
Gonzalez-Ollauri A. Hudek C. Mickovski S. B. Viglietti D. Ceretto N. Freppaz M. |
author_sort |
Gonzalez-Ollauri A. |
title |
Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
title_short |
Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
title_full |
Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
title_fullStr |
Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
title_sort |
describing the vertical root distribution of alpine plants with simple climate, soil, and plant attributes |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/2318/1826841 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 |
genre |
Poa alpina |
genre_facet |
Poa alpina |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000654354000013 volume:203 firstpage:105305 lastpage:105305 numberofpages:27 journal:CATENA http://hdl.handle.net/2318/1826841 doi:10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/scopus/2-s2.0-85108273610 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105305 |
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CATENA |
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203 |
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105305 |
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