Improving the scale and precision of hypotheses to explain root foraging ability.

Annals of Botany
Steven W KembelLiesje Mommer

Abstract

Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain the wide variation in the ability of plants to forage for resources by proliferating roots in soil nutrient patches. Comparative analyses have found little evidence to support many of these hypotheses, raising the question of what role resource-foraging ability plays in determining plant fitness and community structure. In the present viewpoint, we respond to Grime's (2007; Annals of Botany 99: 1017-1021) suggestion that we misinterpreted the scope of the scale-precision trade-off hypothesis, which states that there is a trade-off between the spatial scale over which plant species forage and the precision with which they are able to proliferate roots in resource patches. We use a meta-analysis of published foraging scale-precision correlations to demonstrate that there is no empirical support for the scale-precision trade-off hypothesis. Based on correlations between foraging precision and various plant morphological and ecophysiological traits, we found that foraging precision forms part of the 'fast' suite of plant traits related to rapid growth rates and resource uptake rates. We suggest there is a need not only to examine correlations between foraging precision and other pla...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 7, 2009·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Gordon G McNickle, James F Cahill
Jan 29, 2010·Plant Physiology·Anjali S Iyer-PascuzziPhilip N Benfey
Jul 5, 2016·Frontiers in Plant Science·Martin WeiserTomáš Herben
Oct 12, 2016·Computational Intelligence and Neuroscience·Yang LiuLianbo Ma
Jan 14, 2009·The New Phytologist·Kurt S Pregitzer
Sep 25, 2008·Plant, Cell & Environment·Angela Hodge
Apr 25, 2009·Plant, Cell & Environment·Ariel Novoplansky
Nov 1, 2012·The Journal of Ecology·Pablo García-PalaciosHans de Kroon
May 5, 2009·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Gordon G McNickleJames F Cahill

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