Variations in root architecture traits and their association with organ mass fraction of common annual ephemeral species in the desert of northern Xinjiang

Abstract

Abstract The variation of plant traits is closely related to the trade‐offs between resource acquisition and conservation, as well as the accumulation of biomass. However, there has been a lack of comprehensive insights into the variation patterns, phylogenetic conservatism, and covariation with biomass allocation of root system architecture in desert areas. We examined the root systems of 47 annual ephemeral species and evaluated their biomass allocation and six key root system architecture traits. Our results indicated that the variation in root traits mainly originated from interspecific variation (48.78%–99.76%), but intraspecific variation should not be ignored as to why the contribution rate of root tissue density (RTD) reached 51.22%. The six root traits were mainly loaded on the first and second axes of the principal component analysis (PCA), these traits mainly vary along two dimensions. The highest interspecific variation is in RTD (51.63%) and the lowest in topological index (TI; 5.92%). The intraspecific variation value and range of specific root length (SRL), specific root area (SRA), and RTD were significantly higher than TI (p .05). The SRA is positively correlated with SRL (r = .72, p < .001) and negatively correlated with RTD (r = −.57, p < .05). The LMF is positively correlated with SRL, and SRA demonstrated the coordination between water consumption and acquisition. The positive correlation between RMF and MRD indicated the coordination of root carbon investment with exploring soil vertical space. The multi‐dimensional variation of root traits, divergence of RTDs, and convergence of TI are important ecological strategies for annual short‐lived plants to adapt to heterogeneous desert habitats. Meanwhile, these plants achieve optimal access to scarce resources through the high plasticity of resource acquisition (e.g., SRL and SRA) and conservation traits (e.g., RTD), as well as the trade‐offs between them and organ mass fraction.

Keywords

• interspecific variation
• intraspecific variation
• leaf mass fraction
• root mass fraction