Affiliation:
1. Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 USA
2. Department of Soil System Sciences Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Halle (Saale) 06110 Germany
3. Plant Resilience Institute and MSU‐DOE Plant Research Laboratory Michigan State University East Lansing MI 48824 USA
4. Department of Plant Protection Nanjing Agricultural University Nanjing 210095 China
Abstract
Summary
Plant roots are the main supplier of carbon (C) to the soil, the largest terrestrial C reservoir. Soil pore structure drives root growth, yet how it affects belowground C inputs remains a critical knowledge gap.
By combining X‐ray computed tomography with 14C plant labelling, we identified root–soil contact as a previously unrecognised influence on belowground plant C allocations and on the fate of plant‐derived C in the soil.
Greater contact with the surrounding soil, when the growing root encounters a pore structure dominated by small (< 40 μm Ø) pores, results in strong rhizodeposition but in areas of high microbial activity. The root system of Rudbeckia hirta revealed high plasticity and thus maintained high root–soil contact. This led to greater C inputs across a wide range of soil pore structures. The root–soil contact Panicum virgatum, a promising bioenergy feedstock crop, was sensitive to the encountered structure. Pore structure built by a polyculture, for example, restored prairie, can be particularly effective in promoting lateral root growth and thus root–soil contact and associated C benefits.
The findings suggest that the interaction of pore structure with roots is an important, previously unrecognised, stimulus of soil C gains.
Funder
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
Basic Energy Sciences
Office of Science
Biological and Environmental Research
Cited by
10 articles.
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