Patterns of root intraspecific trait variability

以植物性状为基础的方法在生态学研究中正变得越来越重要。在过去的几年里，科学家们在使用基于特征的方法时，也开始考虑种内性状变异性(ITV)。ITV包括物种或种群内的遗传变异和沿环境梯度的表型可塑性。然而，据我们所知，这两个因素对工业电视总量的相对影响从未被详细研究过。基于植物特性的研究的另一个匮乏是缺乏根部特性。特别是在研究土壤生态对植物、群落或生态系统性能的影响时，根系有望比传统测量的地上部分性状包含更多的直接信息。我们的目标是在从气候室的高度机械化方法到具有强烈小尺度土壤环境梯度的天然草地的田间采样的实验环境中，研究种内根系性状的变异性及其组成部分。我们将对德国勃兰登堡马诺自然保护区的一种草本植物(Arrhenatherum elatius P.BEAUV)和一种杂草(Achilea Millefolium L)的根ITV进行调查。我们将以不同的水平(在琼脂中)模拟包括干旱、pH、养分缺乏和土壤结构在内的几个土壤环境因素，并测量由同一种群的种子培育的不同无性系的根系性状表达。这将为我们提供不同土壤环境条件下根性状表达的信息，并使我们能够量化自然群体中的遗传变异和表型可塑性。此外，我们将通过实验结合土壤环境因素来研究互作对根系性状表达的影响。在野外实验中，我们将采样土壤因素和目标种群在自然环境中的性状表达。对实验克隆和田间取样的植物进行基因分型，将使我们能够将我们关于个体表型可塑性的知识与自然生态系统中的发生情况结合起来。这种方法将使我们能够得出在不同水平的田间环境胁迫下发现的总ITV的遗传变异量和表型可塑性的相对数量的结论。我们的目标是通过计算性状超体积和模拟ITV及其组件的影响，将我们的发现纳入生态位理论的框架中。该项目将有助于正在进行的更好地了解独立电视的重要性的进程，并支持将根系特征纳入以特征为基础的生态。

Plant trait-based approaches are becoming increasingly important in ecological research. During the last years, scientists have begun to also consider intraspecific trait variability (ITV) when working with trait-based approaches. ITV consists of genetic variation within the species or population and phenotypic plasticity along environmental gradients. Nevertheless, the relative impact of these two factors to total ITV has to our knowledge never been studied in detail. Another scarcity of plant trait based research is the lack of root traits. Especially when studying soil ecological effects on plant, community or ecosystem performance roots are promising to hold more direct information than traditionally measured aboveground traits. Our aim is to study intraspecific root trait variability and its components in an experimental setup ranging from a highly mechanistic approach in climate chambers to field sampling in a natural grassland with strong small scale soil environmental gradients. We will investigate root ITV in one grass species (Arrhenatherum elatius P.BEAUV) and one forb species (Achillea millefolium L) from the natural reserve Mallnow (Brandenburg, Germany). We will mimic several soil environmental factors including drought, pH, nutrient deficiency and soil structure with varying levels (in agar) and measure root trait expression on different clones cultivated from seeds of the same population. This will give us information about root trait expression under different soil environmental conditions and allow us to quantify both genetic variation as well as phenotypic plasticity within a natural population. Furthermore we will experimentally combine soil environmental factors to study interactive effects on root trait expression. In a field experiment we will sample soil factors and trait expression of the target population in the natural context. Genotyping of the experimental clones as well as the plants sampled in the field will allow us to combine our knowledge on individual phenotypic plasticity with occurrence in the natural ecosystem. This approach will enable us to draw conclusions about the relative amount of genetic variation and phenotypic plasticity on total ITV found under different levels of environmental stress in the field. We aim to incorporate our findings into the framework of ecological niche theory by calculating trait hypervolumes and modeling the effects of ITV and its components. This project will contribute to the ongoing process of better understanding the importance of ITV and support the incorporation of root traits into trait-based ecology.