Shift from an extensive to an intensive root nutrient-acquisition mode with stand development of three Pinus species

Plant roots employ diverse strategies to acquire soil nutrients, including direct nutrient uptake through absorptive fine roots and root hairs, scavenging nutrients by forming symbioses with mycorrhizal fungi, and mining nutrients by releasing root exudates. However, whether these three strategies are differently coordinated among phylogenetically closely-related tree species and how this coordination shifts with stand development remains largely unclear. To fill these knowledge gaps, we measured 13 root morphological, architectural, physiological and mycorrhizal traits tightly related to nutrient-acquisition of three Pinus species (P. sylvestris var. mongolica, P. densiflora and P. tabuliformis) at young (20-year-old) and mature (50-year-old) stages planted in nutrient-impoverished sandy soils, in Northeast China. We found that young trees had thinner absorptive fine roots and a higher specific root length than mature trees across three Pinus species, indicating that roots become morph..., , , # Shift from an extensive to an intensive root nutrient-acquisition mode with stand development of three *Pinus* species

Authors: Guangru Wang, Guigang Lin, Yansong Zhang, Linlin Zheng, De-Hui Zeng, Hans Lambers

*Correspondences: Guigang Lin, E-mail:

De-Hui Zeng, E-mail:

It includes the data on root and soil nutrients, root morphological traits, root architectural traits, root exudation rates, and mycorrhizal traits.

## Description of the Data and file structure

Abbreviations in this dataset:

C, carbon;

N, nitrogen;

P, phosphorus;

SRL, specific root length;

RD, root diameter;

RTD, root tissue density;

aFR:tFR, biomass ratio of absorptive fine roots to transport fine roots;

aFRB, absorptive fine root biomass;

aRAI, area index of absorptive fine roots;

aRLD, length density of absorptive fine roots;

BA: basal area;

ECM, ectomycorrhizal;

AP, plant-available soil phosphorous;

IN, soil inorganic nitrogen.

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