Belowground carbon allocation in two species of the genus Pinus under varying atmospheric CO{sub 2}, air temperature, and soil nitrogen

Journal Article · Fri Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America

OSTI ID:107112

King, J S; Thomas, R B; Strain, B R ^[1]

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1. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)

Human additions to the global carbon and nitrogen cycles have the potential to significantly alter plant growth, possibly mitigating the magnitude of these perturbations in the long term. To evaluate possible changes to belowground sinks of C and N, an early and late successional species of pine (Pinus taeda and P. ponderosa, respectively) were grown under varying CO{sub 2} (35 and 70 Pa), air temperature (ambient and ambient+5{degrees}C) and soil solution nitrogen (1 and 5 millimolar NH{sub 4}NO{sub 3}) for 160 days at the Duke University Phytotron greenhouse. Both species were evaluated for absolute changes in the fine root, lateral root and tap root pool sizes. In addition, relative changes in these pools were quantified to detect possible shifts in carbon allocation belowground. There was a strong positive response in total root biomass (p=0.0001) in both species to elevated CO{sub 2}. In ponderosa pine, there were no significant shifts in carbon allocation between the tap, lateral and fine root components. Loblolly pine exhibited an increase in the proportion of fine roots relative to lateral roots under low nitrogen (p=0.008) but there was no shift in the fine and lateral roots with respect to the tap root.

• OSTI ID: 107112
• Report Number(s): CONF-9507129--
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Journal Name: Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 76; ISSN BECLAG; ISSN 0012-9623
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CARBON DIOXIDE
NITROGEN
PINES
RESPONSE MODIFYING FACTORS
ROOTS