Quantitative analysis of root system architecture of crop plants

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The aim of this study is to ; 1) develop a computer aided system for root image acquisition, analysis and accumulation for laboratory use using a personal computer, 2) develop a morphometric model for describing and simulating the growth of root system. The results obtained are ;1. A small system constructed with a personal computer, an image scanner and a magneto-optic disk drive is useful for the acquisition, analysis and accumulation of image data of the root system particularly when root samples are prepared and processed with a root box-needle board method. 2. It was shown that the morphology of root systems of legumes studied could be described with a fractal model, having a fractal dimension ranging from 1.2 to 1.7 within a scale range around 0.18 to 20 mm. 3. The fractal dimension (D) of the root system was increased with plant growth, showing an intimate correlation with a total root length (L) of the system. 4. The positive correlation between D and the total number of root apex (A) of the system was found, however, the correlation coefficient was lower than that for the relation between D and L. 5. It was concluded that D could be an useful parameter for describing and modeling the root system architecture.