Minirhizotron root-image processing system

我的研究考察了全球环境变化如何改变草原植物群落的多样性和功能。了解草地功能的一个关键限制因素是，所有生物活动的约90%发生在地下。直到最近，技术限制限制了我们对这种活动的理解。资源池大小（氮、碳）、根系体积和深度的测量大多采用土壤取心法进行，这种方法耗时且具有破坏性，无法重复采样。随着土壤微型植管（基本上是根摄像机）的发展，这种情况发生了变化。微型植管技术为测量地下植物动态提供了一种连续的、非破坏性的方法，深度可达10 ~ 10 m，对于量化根系产量、直立根系作物和根系死亡率对环境变化的响应至关重要。该系统的工作原理是将透明塑料管永久埋在活跃的植物群落下面。一个数字根相机定期放入管中，通过管壁拍摄照片，以监测根的生长、总生物量和死亡率。当这些信息与使用质谱法测量的土壤和根组织的碳和氮含量相结合时，我们可以准确地描述资源池的大小和流量是如何被全球变化的各个方面所改变的（例如，植物入侵、富营养化、气候变化）。作为圭尔夫大学的一名新教员，我的研究计划的建立完全取决于尽快获得微型电子加速器技术。因此，我请求NSERC提供部分资金来购买这个设备。

My research examines how global environmental change is transforming the diversity and functioning of grassland plant communities. A key limiting factor for understanding grassland function is that >90% of all biological activity occurs belowground. Until recently, technological limitations constrained our understanding of this activity. Measurements of resource pool sizes (nitrogen, carbon) and rooting volume and depth were mostly conducted using soil coring, which was time consuming and destructive so that re-sampling was impossible. This has changed with the development of soil minirhizotrons (basically a root camera). Minirhizotron technology provides a continuous and non-destructive means for measuring belowground plant dynamics to depths > 1 m, and is critical for quantifying the responses of root production, standing root crop, and root mortality to environmental change. The system works by permanently burying transparent plastic tubes beneath active plant communities. A digital root camera is periodically lowered into the tube, with pictures taken through the tube walls to monitor the growth, total biomass, and mortality of roots. When this information is combined with measures of the carbon and nitrogen content of soil and root tissue using mass spectrometry, we can accurately describe how resource pool sizes and flow rates are altered by various aspects of global change (e.g., plant invasion, eutrophication, climate change). As a new faculty member at the University of Guelph, the establishment of my research program fully depends on the acquisition of the minirhizotron technology as soon as possible. Therefore, I am requesting partial funding from NSERC to purchase this equipment.