What can we learn from in-soil imaging of a live plant: X-ray Computed Tomography and 3D numerical simulation of root-soil system
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Environmental Molecular Sciences Lab., Richland, WA (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Guangzhou (China)
Plant roots play a critical role in plant-soil-microbe interactions that occur in the rhizosphere. X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) has been proven to be an effective tool for non-invasive root imaging and analysis. A combination of XCT, open-source software, and in-house developed code was used to non-invasively image a prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) specimen, segment the root data to obtain a 3D image of the root structure, and extract quantitative information from the 3D data, respectively. Based on the explicitly-resolved root structure, pore-scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were applied to numerically investigate the root-soil-groundwater system. The plant root conductivity, soil hydraulic conductivity and transpiration rate were shown to control the groundwater distribution. Furthermore, the coupled imaging-modeling approach demonstrates a realistic platform to investigate rhizosphere flow processes and would be feasible to provide useful information linked to upscaled models.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- OSTI ID:
- 1364399
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1550519
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-124115; PII: S2452219817300393
- Journal Information:
- Rhizosphere, Vol. 3, Issue P2; ISSN 2452-2198
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
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