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  • 1
    ISSN: 1432-1939
    Keywords: Key words Soil nutrient heterogeneity ; Nutrient patches ; Soil nutrient exploitation ; Root proliferation ; Shading
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract  Shading may both lessen the demand for soil nutrients and also the energy supply for nutrient acquisition. Since root foraging for nutrients in patchy environments can be energy-costly, especially for an immobile nutrient such as phosphate (P), the effects of shading may be most expected in heterogeneous soils. Plant acquisition of nitrate (N) and phosphate from soils with patchy and uniform nutrient distributions was determined in a field study under open sunlight and with shading for two common perennial Great Basin shrub steppe species, Agropyron desertorum and Artemisia tridentata. Partial shading in a pattern which can occur in shrub steppe vegetation significantly decreased plant N and P acquisition from soils both in the patchy and the uniform nutrient treatments. Artemisia was more affected by the shading than was Agropyron. Exploitation of the rather immobile P ion by both species was reduced to a much greater degree by the shading in the patchy distribution treatment than in the uniform nutrient treatment. As expected, plant acquisition of the more mobile N varied little with nutrient distribution treatment for both species and the depression of N acquisition by shading was the same in both nutrient distributions. The effects of shading appeared to have had its primary influence on different components of root foraging in the two species, especially in the nutrient-rich patches. For Agropyron shading primarily affected root proliferation, as indicated by reduced root density in patches. For Artemisia, shading most influenced root physiological uptake capacity and this was most pronounced in the nutrient-rich patches. While aboveground competition for light may generally reduce nutrient acquisition, the effects appear to be most pronounced if root systems of these steppe species are foraging for nutrients such as P in spatially heterogeneous soils.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 2
    ISSN: 1432-1939
    Keywords: Key words Water transport ; Grass roots ; Hydraulic lift ; Deserts
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Abstract Downward transport of water in roots, in the following termed “inverse hydraulic lift,” has previously been shown with heat flux techniques. But water flow into deeper soil layers was demonstrated in this study for the first time when investigating several perennial grass species of the Kalahari Desert under field conditions. Deuterium labelling was used to show that water acquired by roots from moist sand in the upper profile was transported through the root system to roots deeper in the profile and released into the dry sand at these depths. Inverse hydraulic lift may serve as an important mechanism to facilitate root growth through the dry soil layers underlaying the upper profile where precipitation penetrates. This may allow roots to reach deep sources of moisture in water-limited ecosystems such as the Kalahari Desert.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 3
    ISSN: 1573-5036
    Keywords: Agropyron desertorum ; Artemisia tridentata ; nutrient availability ; resource patchiness ; sagebrush-grass steppe ; temporal variability
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Agriculture, Forestry, Horticulture, Fishery, Domestic Science, Nutrition
    Notes: Abstract Variability in five soil resources essential for plant growth (NH4 +, NO3 -, P, K and soil moisture) was quantified using univariate, multivariate and geostatistical techniques in a sagebrush-grass steppe ecosystem at three times (early April, June and August) during the 1994 growing season. Samples were collected every meter in a 10 × 10-m ‘macrogrid’, every 20 cm within nested 1 × 1-m ‘minigrids’, and every 3 cm within additionally nested 15 × 15-cm ‘microgrids’. Strong autocorrelation for all variables in the three sample periods was only found over distances less than 2 m, indicating that patches of high internal uniformity in this soil were smaller than 2 m during the growing season. Differences in semivariograms between sample periods were most pronounced for NO3 -, NH4 + and soil moisture, variables that we consider to primarily limit plant growth in this system. The distance over which sample points were autocorrelated for NO3 -, NH4 + and soil moisture increased from April to June. In contrast P and K, which are relatively more abundant at the study site, exhibited relatively constant semivariance patterns over the three sample periods. Weak correlation was found between samples collected in the three sample periods for N and soil moisture indicating that the spatial pattern of these limiting resources changed between sample periods. However, P and K had highly significant correlations (p〈0.00001) among sample periods, indicating that the distributional patterns of these relatively more abundant resources remained rather constant. There were strong negative correlations between P and K and distance from the base of shrubs for all sample times (p〈0.001), indicating an increase in P and K close to shrubs. Similar strong negative correlations were not found between distance from the shrubs and levels of NH4 +, NO3 -, or soil moisture, nor for any soil variable and distance from perennial tussock grasses. Changes in patterns of nutrient and soil moisture variability within a growing season suggest that not only must plants acquire soil resources that vary in time and space, but that they may also have to adjust to different scales of resource patchiness during the season.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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