Mr.PARTS · Minirhizotron: Phenology And Root TraitS
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-06-01 → 2019-05-31
- EU contribution
- €159,461
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Minirhizotron: Phenology And Root TraitS
The overall aims of MrPARTS was to improve understanding of plant functioning in real word settings by developing technical solutions to the difficulty in making frequent, phenology (seasonal cycle)-relevant measurements of roots. Currently, ecosystem scientists are able to collect data at daily or better timescale on changes in above-ground portions of ecosystems by using remote sensed images (from satellites, aircraft, or local static cameras). This is of use as short-term changes (such as the beginning of leaf growth) can be related to measurements of carbon dioxide exchange by the ecosystem and helps us gain a mechanistic understanding of how ecosystems function. Roots make up a substantial proportion of total plant biomass and we know that the amount and function of roots changes both over time and in response to background conditions such as climate or soil fertility. As all biomass is made of carbon, this affects the overall C storage and fluxes in and out of the ecosystem. However, roots are often overlooked as measurements are very difficult, usually requiring excavation and cleaning before measurements can be made. Consequently we often assume that roots are predictable from shoot measurements in such experiments (which are used to inform future climate change predictions) without knowing if this assumption is correct. Understanding how true this assumption is, and how different environmental conditions change this link, is key to predicting whole-ecosystem changes in the future. Thus the scientific/technical objectives of MrPARTS were: 1) develop a set of affordable (and hence replicable on experimental budgets) automated minirhizotrons to capture images of root growth at phenological timescales 2) develop a method of analysing frequent root images to extract ecologically useful information 3) deploy these systems in a mesocosm experiment to test basic mechanistic controls on high time resolution root dynamics and their links to above-ground processes 4) deploy these systems at a field site (Majdas del Tietar, in Extremadura Spain) where both a nutrient manipulation experiment and strong seasonal variability in water availability may drive desychronisation above-and-below ground, and where above-ground data is already being collected 5) collect ancillary validation data to 'ground truth' automatically extracted data from minirhizotron imagery.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Mr.PARTS investigates plant belowground carbon investment and the timing of root development . Root turnover is an important part of global carbon (C) cycles and plants may alter investment into root systems due to nutrient imbalances or droughts as well as under anthropogenic global change. However, soils are difficult to study and root biomass is highly spatially and temporally variable, especially as seasonal timing (phenology) of aboveground plant events may affect resource investment and growth periods belowground. I focus on advancing specially designed camera systems for belowground observatories (minirhizotrons; MR) for non-destructive root/soil system observation and repeatable quantification of root biomass, life/death status and traits, using frequent automated data collection and automatic data processing. I will develop new MR instruments and deploy them first in a greenhouse-based mesocosm at the host institution in a controlled and well monitored setting, then a transfer to the field in a thoroughly instrumented (e.g. multiple height eddy covariance CO2, above-ground phenology cameras, soil lysimeters) study site as part of an ecosystem-scale experiment manipulating nutrient stoichiometry in a seasonally dry savanna in Spain. Data streams from the MR instruments will be processed by machine learning techniques and compared and calibrated against manual measurements of root biomass and root traits made via conventional destructive soil coring as well as whole system above-ground phenology, water and carbon budgets, to identify links between above- and belowground phenology as well as root control over ecosystem C fluxes. In addition, a paired 13C isotope labelling experiment will investigate C partitioning to non- root biomass building pools (e.g. root exudates, mycorrhizal fungi, maintenance respiration) to produce an integrated budget of plant belowground C investment and the controls on root production.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV · MUNCHENCoordinatorGermany
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union