Climate and soil nutrients differentially drive multidimensional fine root traits in ectomycorrhizal‐dominated alpine coniferous forests

Fine root traits vary greatly with environmental changes, but the understanding of root-trait variation and its drivers is limited over broad geographical scales, especially for ectomycorrhizal (ECM)-dominated conifers in alpine forests. Herein, the covariation patterns of and environmental controls for fine root traits among ECM-dominated conifers were examined to test whether and how climate and soil nutrients differentially affect fine root trait variations.
Eight traits of first- and second-order roots were measured, i.e., root diameter (RD), specific root length (SRL), branching intensity (BRI), root tissue density (RTD), mycorrhizal colonization rate (MCR), and concentrations of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), across 76 alpine coniferous populations on the eastern Tibetan Plateau, China.
Our results showed that variations of the fine root traits fell into two major dimensions: the first dimension (32.39% of the total variance) was mainly represented by RD and S...