Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems

Guangshui Chen; Sarah E Hobbie; Peter B Reich; Yusheng Yang; David Robinson

doi:10.1111/ele.13193

Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems

Guangshui Chen (Corresponding Author), Sarah E Hobbie, Peter B Reich, Yusheng Yang (Corresponding Author), David Robinson

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

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Abstract

Theoretical predictions regarding fine root production are needed in many ecosystem models but are lacking. Here, we expand the classic pipe model to fine roots and predict isometric scaling relationships between leaf and fine root biomass and among all major biomass production components of individual trees. We also predict that fine root production scales more slowly against increases in leaf production across global forest ecosystems at the stand level. Using meta-analysis, we show fine root biomass scales isometrically against leaf biomass both at the individual tree and stand level. However, despite isometric scaling between stem and coarse root production, fine root production scales
against leaf production with a slope of about 0.8 at the stand level, which probably results from more rapid increase of turnover rate in leaves than in fine roots. These analyses help to improve our understandings of allometric theory and controls of belowground C processes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	322-331
Number of pages	10
Journal	Ecology Letters
Volume	22
Issue number	2
Early online date	28 Nov 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13193
Publication status	Published - Feb 2019

Bibliographical note

We thank Chensen Xu for drawing Figure 1. This synthesis benefits directly from different sources of dataset, including the forest flux database (Luyssaert et al. 2007), BAAD (Falster et al. 2015), ForC‐db (https://github.com/forc-db), dataset of Malhi et al. (2011) and Litton et al. (2007). We are grateful to all these authors, site investigators and their funding agencies contributing to these dataset. We thank the various regional flux networks (Afriflux, AmeriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEurope‐IP, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet‐Canada, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS‐Siberia, USCCC), and the Fluxnet project, for support in obtaining these measurements. We also thank two reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31422012 and 31830014).

Keywords

allometric scaling
carbon allocation
carbon cycle
fine roots
forest ecosystems
net primary production
pipe model
Allometric scaling

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10.1111/ele.13193Licence: Unspecified

Accepted Manuscript
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Chen, G. , Hobbie, S. E., Reich, P. B., Yang, Y. and Robinson, D. (2019), Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems. Ecol Lett, 22: 322-331., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13193. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
Accepted author manuscript, 703 KBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems",

abstract = "Theoretical predictions regarding fine root production are needed in many ecosystem models but are lacking. Here, we expand the classic pipe model to fine roots and predict isometric scaling relationships between leaf and fine root biomass and among all major biomass production components of individual trees. We also predict that fine root production scales more slowly against increases in leaf production across global forest ecosystems at the stand level. Using meta-analysis, we show fine root biomass scales isometrically against leaf biomass both at the individual tree and stand level. However, despite isometric scaling between stem and coarse root production, fine root production scalesagainst leaf production with a slope of about 0.8 at the stand level, which probably results from more rapid increase of turnover rate in leaves than in fine roots. These analyses help to improve our understandings of allometric theory and controls of belowground C processes.",

keywords = "allometric scaling, carbon allocation, carbon cycle, fine roots, forest ecosystems, net primary production, pipe model, Allometric scaling",

author = "Guangshui Chen and Hobbie, {Sarah E} and Reich, {Peter B} and Yusheng Yang and David Robinson",

note = "We thank Chensen Xu for drawing Figure 1. This synthesis benefits directly from different sources of dataset, including the forest flux database (Luyssaert et al. 2007), BAAD (Falster et al. 2015), ForC‐db (https://github.com/forc-db), dataset of Malhi et al. (2011) and Litton et al. (2007). We are grateful to all these authors, site investigators and their funding agencies contributing to these dataset. We thank the various regional flux networks (Afriflux, AmeriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEurope‐IP, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet‐Canada, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS‐Siberia, USCCC), and the Fluxnet project, for support in obtaining these measurements. We also thank two reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31422012 and 31830014).",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1111/ele.13193",

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volume = "22",

pages = "322--331",

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N2 - Theoretical predictions regarding fine root production are needed in many ecosystem models but are lacking. Here, we expand the classic pipe model to fine roots and predict isometric scaling relationships between leaf and fine root biomass and among all major biomass production components of individual trees. We also predict that fine root production scales more slowly against increases in leaf production across global forest ecosystems at the stand level. Using meta-analysis, we show fine root biomass scales isometrically against leaf biomass both at the individual tree and stand level. However, despite isometric scaling between stem and coarse root production, fine root production scalesagainst leaf production with a slope of about 0.8 at the stand level, which probably results from more rapid increase of turnover rate in leaves than in fine roots. These analyses help to improve our understandings of allometric theory and controls of belowground C processes.

AB - Theoretical predictions regarding fine root production are needed in many ecosystem models but are lacking. Here, we expand the classic pipe model to fine roots and predict isometric scaling relationships between leaf and fine root biomass and among all major biomass production components of individual trees. We also predict that fine root production scales more slowly against increases in leaf production across global forest ecosystems at the stand level. Using meta-analysis, we show fine root biomass scales isometrically against leaf biomass both at the individual tree and stand level. However, despite isometric scaling between stem and coarse root production, fine root production scalesagainst leaf production with a slope of about 0.8 at the stand level, which probably results from more rapid increase of turnover rate in leaves than in fine roots. These analyses help to improve our understandings of allometric theory and controls of belowground C processes.

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Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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