Projects per year
Abstract
Soil nutrients are distributed in a non-uniform or 'patchy' manner. It is well established that the modular nature of root systems allows them to show both morphological and/or physiological plasticity upon encountering nutrient-rich patches. These plastic responses are widely believed to be foraging mechanisms by the plant to enhance nutrient resource capture. Although morphological plasticity has traditionally been viewed as the more expensive option as it requires new root construction, more recent evidence suggests this may not necessarily be the case. Moreover, plants may be able to recapture most of the initial outlay involved in new root construction, again lowering the overall cost to the plant. Under natural conditions the roots of most plant species have an additional nutrient acquisition mechanism namely mycorrhizal symbiosis. However, the impact of these important symbiotic associations upon the host plant's response to nutrient patches has received relatively little attention. The mycorrhizal fungal symbiont should, in theory, be better able to compete directly with the rest of the microbial community for the nutrients in the patch. This could potentially be important to the host plant, as generally, root proliferation responses are more important for interspecific plant, than plant-microbial, competition.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 401-411 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Experimental Botany |
Volume | 57 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2006 |
Keywords
- mycorrhizal symbiosis
- nutrient competition
- nitrogen
- root physiological and morphological plasticity
- SEMINAL ROOT-SYSTEM
- ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI
- NUTRIENT-RICH PATCHES
- SELF/NON-SELF DISCRIMINATION
- FINE ROOTS
- NITROGEN CAPTURE
- AGROPYRON-DESERTORUM
- ARTEMISIA-TRIDENTATA
- MORPHOLOGICAL PLASTICITY
- ECTOMYCORRHIZAL FUNGI
Projects
- 1 Finished
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AM fungi as determinants of plant resource capture from organic patches followed by isotopic and molecular techniques
1/02/00 → 30/09/07
Project: Research project (funded) › Research