Root proliferation strategies and exploration of soil patchiness in arid communities

Soil patchiness is a key feature of arid rangelands. As root proliferation contributes to soil exploration and resource uptake, it is ecologically relevant to understand how species respond to soil heterogeneity and coexist. Campbell et al.’s influential 1991 hypothesis proposes that dominant specie...

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Autor principal: Reyes, María Fernanda
Otros Autores: Aguiar, Martín Roberto
Formato: Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
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Acceso en línea:http://ri.agro.uba.ar/files/intranet/articulo/2017reyes.pdf
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Aporte de:Registro referencial: Solicitar el recurso aquí
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100 1 |9 37703  |a Reyes, María Fernanda  |u Facultad de Agronomía, Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453, Buenos Aires C1417DSE, Argentina. Email: freyes@agro.uba.ar 
245 0 0 |a Root proliferation strategies and exploration of soil patchiness in arid communities 
520 |a Soil patchiness is a key feature of arid rangelands. As root proliferation contributes to soil exploration and resource uptake, it is ecologically relevant to understand how species respond to soil heterogeneity and coexist. Campbell et al.’s influential 1991 hypothesis proposes that dominant species deploy root systems (scale) that maximize soil volume explored. Instead, subordinate species show accurate root systems that exclusively proliferate in nutrient-rich patches (precision). After many experiments under controlled conditions, the generality of this hypothesis has been questioned but a field perspective is necessary to increase realism in the conceptual framework. We worked with a guild of perennial graminoid species inside a grazing exclosure in an arid Patagonian steppe, a model system for ecological studies in arid rangelands for four decades. We buried root traps in bare ground patches with sieved soil, with or without a pulse of nitrogen addition, to measure specific root biomass and precision at 6 and 18 months after burial. We also estimated scale (root density) in naturally established plants,and root decomposition in litter bags. Several species grew in root traps. Dominant species showed the highest root biomass (in both harvests) and scale. Subordinate species grew more frequently with nitrogen addition and showed lower biomass and scale. Similar total root biomass was found with and without nitrogen addition. Species differed in root decomposition, but correcting species biomass by decomposition did not change our conclusions. We did not find a relation between scale and precision, indicating that Campbell’s hypothesis is probably not supported in this Patagonian steppe. Soil resource acquisition differences probably do not utterly explain the coexistence of dominant and subordinate species because the steppe is also affected by large herbivore grazing. We propose that root proliferation in this steppe is the result of the interaction between individual density in the community and specific root growth rates. 
650 |2 Agrovoc  |9 26 
653 |a GRAMINOIDS 
653 |a NUTRIENT HETEROGENEITY 
653 |a PRECISION 
653 |a SCALE 
653 |a SPECIES COEXISTENCE 
700 1 |9 12939  |a Aguiar, Martín Roberto  |u Facultad de Agronomía, Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA) and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Av. San Martín 4453, Buenos Aires C1417DSE, Argentina 
773 0 |t Austral Ecology : a journal of ecology in the southern hemisphere  |w SECS000968  |g Vol.42, no.7, (2017), p. 810-818, tbls., grafs. 
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