Data from: Biomass partitioning of plants under soil pollution stress

Polluted sites are ubiquitous worldwide but how plant partition their
biomass between different organs in this context is unclear. Here, we
identified three possible drivers of biomass partitioning in our
controlled study along pollution gradients: plant size reduction
(pollution effect) combined with allometric scaling between organs; early
deficit in root surfaces (pollution effect) inducing a decreased water
uptake; increased biomass allocation to roots to compensate for lower soil
resource acquisition consistent with the optimal partitioning theory
(plant response). A complementary meta-analysis showed variation in
biomass partitioning across published studies, with grass and woody
species having distinct modifications of their root: shoot ratio. However,
the modelling of biomass partitioning drivers showed that single harvest
experiments performed in previous studies prevent identifying the main
drivers at stake. The proposed distinction between pollution effects and
plant response will help to improve our knowledge of plant allocation
strategies in the context of pollution.