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Do phylogenetic and environmental factors drive the altitudinal variation in absorptive root traits at the species and community levels?

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Abstract

Aims

Although the variation in absorptive root traits at the species level and driving factors has received a lot of attention, it is still unknown how community-level root traits vary along the environmental gradients.

Methods

In this study, absorptive fine roots of 69 woody plants from four forest vegetation on the northern slope of Taibai Mountain were collected, and four root traits (including morphological and chemical traits) were measured.

Results

At the species level, absorptive root traits, except root nitrogen concentration (RNC), did not change along altitudinal gradients. A large proportion of variation in root diameter (RD), specific root length (SRL) and root tissue density (RTD) was attributed to phylogenetic taxonomy (clade, 39.47-60.72%). Differently, community-level absorptive roots at birch forest exhibited thinner RDc and lesser RNCc but longer SRLc and greater RTDc than other altitudes, which were mainly influenced by the climatic (aridity index) and soil factors (soil available P and nitrate concentration). Moreover, unlike root economic space, community-level root traits were divided into the morphological (including RDc, SRLc and RTDc) and chemical (including RNCc) dimensions.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that the response of community-level root traits to climatic and soil factors is more significant compared to species-level root traits. Future studies should incorporate community-level root traits into global vegetation distribution models.

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Data availability

The datasets supporting this study are available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32271611), Youth Talent Support Project of Science and Technology Association in Shaanxi Province (20200203) and 245 Qinling National Forest Ecosystem Research Station in 2022 financed by Ministry of Education of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China

    Xue Wang, Xinrui Liu, Weiyi Mo, Kaixi Chen, Haoxuan Chen, Huirong Gao, Ming Zhang, Yanqi Yuan, Ruili Wang & Shuoxin Zhang

  2. Qinling National Forest Ecosystem Research Station, Huoditang, Ningshan, Shaanxi, 711600, China

    Shuoxin Zhang

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  1. Xue Wang
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  2. Xinrui Liu
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Contributions

Study design: SXZ and RLW; Collecting sampling: XW, XRL, HXC, HRG, MZ, YQY; Data collection and analyze: XW, XRL, KXC; Manuscript writing: XW, RLW and SXZ.

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Correspondence to Ruili Wang or Shuoxin Zhang.

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Wang, X., Liu, X., Mo, W. et al. Do phylogenetic and environmental factors drive the altitudinal variation in absorptive root traits at the species and community levels?. Plant Soil 494, 203–215 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06267-1

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