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Root depth and morphology in response to soil drought: comparing ecological groups along the secondary succession in a tropical dry forest

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Abstract

Root growth and morphology may play a core role in species-niche partitioning in highly diverse communities, especially along gradients of drought risk, such as that created along the secondary succession of tropical dry forests. We experimentally tested whether root foraging capacity, especially at depth, decreases from early successional species to old-growth forest species. We also tested for a trade-off between two mechanisms for delaying desiccation, the capacity to forage deeper in the soil and the capacity to store water in tissues, and explored whether successional groups separate along such a trade-off. We examined the growth and morphology of roots in response to a controlled-vertical gradient of soil water, among seedlings of 23 woody species dominant along the secondary succession in a tropical dry forest of Mexico. As predicted, successional species developed deeper and longer root systems than old-growth forest species in response to soil drought. In addition, shallow root systems were associated with high plant water storage and high water content per unit of tissue in stems and roots, while deep roots exhibited the opposite traits, suggesting a trade-off between the capacities for vertical foraging and water storage. Our results suggest that an increased capacity of roots to forage deeper for water is a trait that enables successional species to establish under the warm-dry conditions of the secondary succession, while shallow roots, associated with a higher water storage capacity, are restricted to the old-growth forest. Overall, we found evidence that the root depth-water storage trade-off may constrain tree species distribution along secondary succession.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Estación de Biología Chamela (UNAM) for the facilities offered during seed collection. The authors appreciate the assistance of A. Leal-Lara, G. Arroyo-Robles, C. Barocio-Hernández, A. Polis-Rosas and I. de la Rosa-Aguilar during the conduction of experiments and data collection, and the kind help from F. Mora Ardila, and S. Maza-Villalobos on species’ habitat distribution assessment. This work was funded by PAPIIT, UNAM (IN208012), CONACyT (2009129740) and CIECO. L. P. P. acknowledges the scholarship and financial support provided by Hewlett-Packard Foundation. F. P.-G acknowledges the DGAPA-UNAM postdoctoral scholarship. The experiments comply with the current laws of the country (Mexico) in which the experiments were performed.

Conflict of interest

The corresponding author, on behalf of the co-authors, declares that there is no potential conflict of interest that could influence or bias the work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Morelia, Morelia, Mexico

    Horacio Paz & Luisa F. Pinzón-Pérez

  2. Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Unidad Morelia, Morelia, Mexico

    Fernando Pineda-García

  3. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo Científico, Jardín Botánico José Celestino Mutis, Bogotá, Colombia

    Luisa F. Pinzón-Pérez

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  1. Horacio Paz
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  2. Fernando Pineda-García
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Correspondence to Horacio Paz.

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Communicated by Ines Ibanez.

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Paz, H., Pineda-García, F. & Pinzón-Pérez, L.F. Root depth and morphology in response to soil drought: comparing ecological groups along the secondary succession in a tropical dry forest. Oecologia 179, 551–561 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3359-6

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