Mawodza, T., Menon, M. orcid.org/0000-0001-5665-7464, Brooks, H. et al. (3 more authors) (2021) Preferential wheat (Triticum aestivum. L cv. Fielder) root growth in different sized aggregates. Soil and Tillage Research, 212. 105054. ISSN 0167-1987
Abstract
Soil structure is one of the most important environmental factors affecting root architectural development and consequently plant yield. Understanding how plant roots respond to soils with variable soil structure is important as it enables soil management practices that promote optimal root growth. Many contemporary, non-invasive experiments investigating how plant root architecture responds to soil structural variations have often focused on compaction, often neglecting the role of soil aggregate size in determining root configuration. To better understand this, in this study, we used non-invasive neutron and X-Ray imaging to investigate how variable aggregate size affects the early root architectural establishment in wheat plants. Sandy loam soil derived macro-aggregates of two distinct sizes (0.25−0.5 and 2−4 mm) were used to infer the suitability of each aggregate size for use in wheat seedbeds. We also grew wheat seedlings in partitioned containers with the two different aggregate size classes filled side by side to establish whether there would be preferential growth of roots in either aggregate size class. Our results showed significantly increased root growth in the smaller 0.25−0.5 mm aggregates as compared to the larger 2−4 mm aggregates. This was mainly as a result of enhanced lateral root growth when the wheat plants were grown in the finer aggregates. On the other hand, coarser aggregates induced significantly increased seminal root axes which partially offset the differences in total root length between the two aggregate sizes. Plants growing in partitioned containers similarly indicated preferential root growth in smaller aggregate with an even more pronounced difference in root growth in the smaller aggregates. As inferred from our results, seedbeds dominated by smaller macro-aggregates (finer soil tilth) may be optimal to enhance wheat seedling root growth in sandy loam soils.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Elsevier B.V. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Soil and Tillage Research. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Soil aggregates; Soil Structure; Neutron computed tomography; X-Ray computed tomography |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 07 May 2021 13:48 |
Last Modified: | 03 May 2023 00:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.still.2021.105054 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:173872 |
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Filename: Mawodza et al final accepted version.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0