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The effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and soil P placement on cotton root deployment

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Abstract

Root proliferation into nutrient rich zones is an important mechanism in the exploitation of soil nutrients by plants. No studies have examined atmospheric CO2 effects on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) root distribution as affected by localized phosphorus (P). Cotton plants were grown in a Troup sand (loamy, thermic Grossarenic Kandiudults) using 17.2-l containers placed in open top field chambers (OTC) under ambient (360 μmol mol−1) or enriched (720 μmol mol−1) atmospheric CO2 concentrations for 40 days. Equivalent amounts of P were added (150 mg P per kg of soil) to 100, 50, 25, 12.5, and 6.25% of the total soil volume; control containers with no added P were also included. Under extremely low P (controls), cotton was unresponsive to CO2 enrichment. In treatments with both fertilized and unfertilized soil volumes, root proliferation was greater in the unfertilized soil under elevated CO2 conditions. Stimulation of root growth occurred in the P-fertilized soil fraction; the pattern of stimulation was similar under both CO2 levels. Under ambient CO2, cotton plant response was positive (shoot mass, and total root mass and length) when soil P was confined to relatively small proportions of the total soil volume (6.25 and 12.5%). However, elevated CO2 grown plants tended to respond to P regardless of its distribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, National Soil Dynamics Laboratory, 411 South Donahue Drive, Auburn, AL, 36832, USA

    S.A. Prior, H.H. Rogers & G.B. Runion

  2. Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 422 Smyth Hall, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    G.L. Mullins

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  1. S.A. Prior
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  2. H.H. Rogers
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  3. G.L. Mullins
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  4. G.B. Runion
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Correspondence to S.A. Prior.

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Prior, S., Rogers, H., Mullins, G. et al. The effects of elevated atmospheric CO2 and soil P placement on cotton root deployment. Plant and Soil 255, 179–187 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026143410238

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