Root responses to elevated CO2, warming, and irrigation in a semi-arid grassland: integrating biomass, length, and life span in a 5‐year field experiment

Plant roots mediate the impacts of environmental change on ecosystems, yet knowledge of root responses to environmental change is limited because few experiments evaluate multiple environmental factors and their interactions. Inferences about root functions are also limited because root length dynamics are rarely measured.
Using a five‐year experiment in a mixed‐grass prairie, we report the responses of root biomass, length, and lifespan to elevated carbon dioxide (CO2), warming, elevated CO2 and warming combined, and irrigation. Root biomass was quantified using soil cores and root length dynamics were assessed using minirhizotrons. By comparing root dynamics with published results for soil resources and aboveground productivity, we provide mechanistic insights into how climate change might impact grassland ecosystems.
In the upper soil layer, 0–15 cm depth, both irrigation and elevated CO2 alone increased total root length by two‐fold, but irrigation decreased root biomass and elevat...,
individual_roots_lifespan_survivorship_length_diameter
Data used for analyses of root lifespan and survivorship
 
 

total_root_length_production_mortality
Data used for analyses of total 'standing' root length, total root production, and total root mortality
 
 
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