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Root foraging for patchy resources in eight herbaceous plant species

  • Community Ecology
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Abstract

The root foraging strategy of a plant species can be characterized by measuring foraging scale, precision, and rate. Trade-offs among these traits have been predicted to contribute to coexistence of competitors. We tested for trade-offs among root foraging scale (total root mass and length of structural roots), precision (ln-ratio of root lengths in resource-rich and resource-poor patches), and rate (days required for roots to reach a resource-rich patch, or growth rate of roots within a resource-rich patch) in eight co-occurring species. We found that root foraging scale and precision were positively correlated, as were foraging scale and the rate of reaching patches. High relative growth rate of a species did not contribute to greater scale, precision, or rate of root foraging. Introduced species had greater foraging scale, precision, and rate than native species. The positive correlations between foraging scale and foraging precision and rate may give larger species a disproportionate advantage in competition for patchy soil resources, leading to size asymmetric competition below ground.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2a–f
Fig. 3

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Chuck Talley for help setting up the experiment and for the illustrations for Fig. 1, and Megan Boswell, Rachel Hewlate, and Kevin Hewlate for help with data collection. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (DEB-0129493).

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  1. Tara K. Rajaniemi

    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road, North Dartmouth, MA 02747, USA

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  1. Department of Biology, Myers Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA

    Tara K. Rajaniemi & Heather L. Reynolds

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Correspondence to Tara K. Rajaniemi.

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Rajaniemi, T.K., Reynolds, H.L. Root foraging for patchy resources in eight herbaceous plant species. Oecologia 141, 519–525 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-004-1666-4

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