Plant growth forms determine root resource acquisition strategy along ‘fast-slow’ economics spectrum in a temperate forest community

While root acquisition strategies at regional and global scales are broadly associated with climate, soil resource availability, and plant phylogeny, there is additional variation in functional traits at the local scale that is substantial, yet remains poorly understood. We sampled 115 species across five growth forms (trees, shrubs, lianas, herbs, and ferns) from a temperate forest and measured seven key functional traits of first-order roots. Most trait variations were greater among growth forms than within them. Root tissue density (RTD) and specific root length (SRL) showed the highest variation compared with other traits. Variance partitioning analysis revealing the growth form showed the largest explaining of RTD and SRL variations. Among the five growth forms, herbs had the thinnest root diameter, highest root nitrogen concentration, and longest SRL, as well as the lowest ratio of root carbon to nitrogen, while ferns exhibited the thickest cortex thickness and stele diameter. Com..., , , # Plant growth forms determine root resource acquisition strategy along ‘fast-slow’ economics spectrum in a temperate forest community

The data that support the findings of this study, and includes the root morphological (root diameter, specific root length, root tissue density), anatomical (cortex thickness, stele diameter) and chemical traits (root nitrogen concentration, ratio of carbon to nitrogen) of 115 species.

Abbreviations of the data:
RD, root diameter (mm);
SRL, specific root length (m g-1);
RTD, root tissue density (g cm-3);
RN, root nitrogen concentration (mg g-1);
C/N, ratio of carbon to nitrogen;
CT, cortex thickness (μm);
SteleD, stele diameter (μm);
group, growth forms;

R code for analyzing phylogenetic signal, abouheif's test, pic, ppca, vpa, and permanova are provide in code.R