A new approach for rapid measurement of directional root responses to neighbors using the root centroid

Measuring directional root placement is critical for understanding plant responses to their belowground environment, and particularly their competing neighbors. Directional root placement is commonly measured using image analysis of roots growing in transparent pots (rhizoboxes), where the length of the root system of the target plants is tracked. However, tracking roots with a soil background can be highly challenging, particularly in competition studies, where two or more root systems are intertwined within the same experimental setup. In this study, we propose a new approach for measuring directional root placement in competitive setups, with two methods that calculate the centroid of the root system without measuring overall root length. In the first method, the centroid is calculated by marking all the intersection points of the target plant roots along a fixed number of equally spaced horizontal lines superimposed on the image. In the second method, the centroid is calculated from..., , # Data from: A new approach for rapid measurement of directional root responses to neighbors using the root centroid

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.xd2547dx3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.xd2547dx3)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data were collected to estimate the directional root placement as described in the article \"A New Approach for Rapid Measurement of Directional Root Responses to Neighbors Using the Root Centroid.\" We gathered data on the traditional method of relative root length by analyzing root length in rhizobox images with the WhinRhizo Tron software. Subsequently, we applied the same images to three new centroid methods implemented in Python. This data was utilized to assess the directional root responses of plants in two competition experiments featuring *Hymenocarpos circinnatus* and *Pisum sativum* as the target plants.

### Files and variables

#### File: Hymenocarpos_circinnatus_data.xlsx

**Description:** Raw data used in the analyses and figure..., ,