HAL Id: hal-01837334
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Root structure - function relationships: evidence of a
root economics spectrum?
Catherine Roumet, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Marine Birouste, Murielle
Ghestem, Alexia Stokes, Gregoire Freschet
To cite this version:
Catherine Roumet, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Marine Birouste, Murielle Ghestem, Alexia Stokes, et al.. Root structure - function relationships: evidence of a root economics spectrum?. Joint 2014 Annual Meeting Bristish Ecological Society and Société Française d’Ecologie, Dec 2014, Lille, France. �hal-01837334�
Root structure - function relationships: evidence of a “root economics spectrum”?
Catherine Roumet, Catherine Picon-Cochard, Marine Birouste, Murielle Ghestem, Alexia Stokes, Grégoire Freschet
Because fine roots perform many functions, they have to face to conflicting demands that have major ecological implications on their structure and ecosystem processes. Understanding how root structure and functions varied among species is thus a major goal in ecology. This has been largely under-considered worldwide in part because of the lack of large root databases. This study aimed to test on a large number of species the existence of a “root economics spectrum" consisting of key chemical, structural and physiological traits that may reflect a trade-off between resource acquisition and conservation similar to that reported at the leaf level.
We determined patterns of correlations among root structural and chemical traits and their relationships with two traits relating to carbon economy, root respiration and root decomposability. This was done in two complementary studies, an experiment on fine roots of 74 herbaceous species from Temperate, Mediterranean, Tropical and sub Tropical sites and a meta-analysis reviewing root traits on 1700 taxa worldwide.
Results demonstrate that there is a fundamental trade-off at the root level opposing species promoting root growth through high respiration rate and tissue quality to species reducing resource loss through investing in recalcitrant tissues which decomposed slowly. We will discuss the consistent of this trade-off across taxonomical groups, growth forms and climates and its consequences on the root economics and ecosystem functioning.
