Abstract
Nutrient type and plant functional group are both important in influencing proliferation of roots or hyphae and their benefit to plant growth in nutritionally heterogeneous environments. However, the studies quantifying relative importance of roots vs. hyphae affecting the plant response to nutrient heterogeneity are lacking. Here, we used meta-analysis based on 879 observations from 66 published studies to evaluate response patterns of seven variables related to growth and morphological traits of plants and mycorrhizal fungi in nutritionally heterogeneous environments. We found that phosphorus [P] and organic fertilizer [OF] supply significantly increased shoot (+18.1 and +25.9%, respectively) and root biomass (+31.1 and +23.0%, respectively) and root foraging precision (+11.8 and +20.4%, respectively). However, there was no significant difference among functional groups of herbs (grasses, forbs, and legumes), between herbs and woody species, and between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree species in the shoot, root and mycorrhizal fungi responses to nutrient heterogeneity, except for root biomass and root foraging precision among grasses, forbs, and legumes, and mycorrhizal hyphal foraging precision between AM and ECM tree species. Root diameter was uncorrelated with neither root foraging precision nor mycorrhizal hyphal foraging precision, regardless of mycorrhizal type or nutrient type. These results suggest that plant growth and foraging strategies are mainly influenced by nutrient type, among other factors including plant functional type and mycorrhizal type.
Highlights
In soils, nutrient distribution is spatially heterogeneous (Waring et al, 2020)
We aimed to address the following questions: (1) whether different nutrient types can explain the variation in plant responses to heterogeneous nutrient distribution, (2) whether plant responses to heterogeneously supplied nutrients would vary among different functional groups of herbaceous plants, between herbs and woody plants, and between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ECM tree species, and (3) whether there would be relationships between root diameter and root or mycorrhizal hyphal foraging precision in response of plant species to heterogeneous nutrient distribution in soil
No significant difference was noted in responses to nutrient heterogeneity among functional groups of herbs, between herbs and woody plants, and between AM and ECM tree species regarding plant growth and foraging strategy, except for root biomass and root foraging precision among grasses, forbs and legumes, and mycorrhizal hyphal foraging precision between AM and ECM tree species
Summary
Nutrient distribution is spatially heterogeneous (Waring et al, 2020). Root and mycorrhizal hyphae proliferation within nutrient-rich zones is a ubiquitous adaptive strategy to acquire nutrients quickly (Hodge, 2004, 2006) and promote plant growth to confer a competitive advantage to species with high root plasticity (Hodge et al, 1999; Kembel et al, 2008; Mommer et al, 2012; Li H. et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2019). Kembel and Cahill (2005) found that capacity to respond to small nutrient patches was generally higher in roots of dicots than monocots, suggesting it was phylogenetically and taxonomically conserved. Kembel and Cahill (2005) found that capacity to respond to small nutrient patches was generally higher in roots of dicots than monocots, suggesting it was phylogenetically and taxonomically conserved. Root proliferation is generally nutrient-specific (Robinson, 1994a; Forde and Lorenzo, 2001; Liu et al, 2015), especially when plant species adopt different strategies to obtain different nutrients (Ceulemans et al, 2017; Nasto et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2021). Nutrient-specific (e.g., N, P) responses of plant species may modify phylogenetic signals in root responses to nutritionally heterogeneous environments
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