Rooting depths, lateral root spreads and below‐ground/above‐ground allometries of plants in water‐limited ecosystems

1 In water-limited environments, the availability of water and nutrients to plants depends on environmental conditions, sizes and shapes of their root systems, and root competition. The goal of this study was to predict root system sizes and shapes for different plant growth forms using data on above-ground plant sizes, climate and soil texture. 2 A new data set of > 1300 records of root system sizes for individual plants was collected from the literature for deserts, scrublands, grasslands and savannas with ≤ 1000 mm mean annual precipitation (MAP). Maximum rooting depths, maximum lateral root spreads and their ratios were measured. 3 Root system sizes differed among growth forms and increased with…

• AW
  Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• UI
  Universitetet i Oslo
• NC
  National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis