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Partitioning of root respiration into growth, maintenance, and ion uptake components in a young larch-dominated forest

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Abstract

Purpose

Fine roots play an essential role in global carbon cycles, but phenological variations in root function and metabolism are poorly understood. To illustrate the dynamics of fine root function and metabolism in the field, we partitioned root respiration (Rr) into growth (Rg), maintenance (Rm), and ion uptake (Rion) components using a modified traditional model.

Methods

A year-round experiment was conducted in a young larch-dominated forest regrowing on bare soil. Soil respiration was measured with a chamber method and partitioned into Rr and heterotrophic respiration by trenching. Fine root biomass and production were measured simultaneously. Using the field data, the model was parameterized, and Rr was further partitioned.

Results

Annually, Rr (210–253 g C m−2 yr−1) accounts for 45–47% of the total soil respiration. The contribution of fine root Rg, fine root Rm, coarse root Rm, and fine root Rion were 26–40, 46–51, 10–16, and 12%, respectively. The Rg contribution showed a clear seasonal variation, with a peak in mid-spring and a minimum in early fall, mainly because of different seasonality between fine root production and soil temperature.

Conclusion

The model parameters were consistent with those from our previous study conducted by the same method in the same site. Thus, we believe that our approach was robust under a relatively simple condition. However, our growth respiration parameter resulting from only field data was much higher than those from laboratory experiments. To further improve our understanding of root respiration, more field data should be accumulated.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Hokkaido Regional Office of the Forestry Agency for allowing us to use the study site, N. Saigusa, Y. Takahashi, R. Hirata and the staff of CGER for managing the site, and K. Ishikura for sharing an R script for the nonlinear mixed effect model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Takashi Hirano & Lifei Sun

  2. Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-8589, Japan

    Rui Cui

  3. Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, 305-8506, Japan

    Lifei Sun, Munemasa Teramoto & Naishen Liang

  4. Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University, Tottori, 680-0001, Japan

    Munemasa Teramoto

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  1. Takashi Hirano
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Correspondence to Takashi Hirano.

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Declarations

This study was supported by JPSP KAKENHI (17K20037) and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20172005 and JPMEERF20202006) of Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Takashi Hirano, Rui Cui and Lifei Sun. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Takashi Hirano and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Hirano, T., Cui, R., Sun, L. et al. Partitioning of root respiration into growth, maintenance, and ion uptake components in a young larch-dominated forest. Plant Soil 482, 57–72 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05674-0

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