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, Sarah E. Hobbie, Peter B. Reich, Yusheng Yang, David Robinson

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32 Scopus citations

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 (US)
Pages (from-to)	322-331
Number of pages	10
Journal	Ecology letters
Volume	22
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13193
State	Published - Feb 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
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 (Fal-ster 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, Car-boAfrica, 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).

Funding Information:
We thank Chensen Xu for drawing Figure. This synthesis benefits directly from different sources of dataset, including the forest flux database (Luyssaert et al.), BAAD (Falster et al.), ForC-db (https://github.com/forc-db), dataset of Malhi et al. () and Litton et al. (). 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).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS

Keywords

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

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10.1111/ele.13193

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@article{a6a111726998470197eb679a61904557,

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 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.",

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

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

note = "Funding Information: 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 (Fal-ster 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, Car-boAfrica, 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). Funding Information: We thank Chensen Xu for drawing Figure. This synthesis benefits directly from different sources of dataset, including the forest flux database (Luyssaert et al.), BAAD (Falster et al.), ForC-db (https://github.com/forc-db), dataset of Malhi et al. () and Litton et al. (). 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). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS",

year = "2019",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1111/ele.13193",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "22",

pages = "322--331",

journal = "Ecology Letters",

issn = "1461-023X",

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T1 - Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems

AU - Chen, Guangshui

AU - Hobbie, Sarah E.

AU - Reich, Peter B.

AU - Yang, Yusheng

AU - Robinson, David

N1 - Funding Information: 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 (Fal-ster 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, Car-boAfrica, 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). Funding Information: We thank Chensen Xu for drawing Figure. This synthesis benefits directly from different sources of dataset, including the forest flux database (Luyssaert et al.), BAAD (Falster et al.), ForC-db (https://github.com/forc-db), dataset of Malhi et al. () and Litton et al. (). 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). Publisher Copyright: © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS

PY - 2019/2

Y1 - 2019/2

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 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.

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 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.

KW - Allometric scaling

KW - carbon allocation

KW - carbon cycle

KW - fine roots

KW - forest ecosystems

KW - net primary production

KW - pipe model

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DO - 10.1111/ele.13193

M3 - Letter

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JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

SN - 1461-023X

IS - 2

ER -

Allometry of fine roots in forest ecosystems

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