A mini-rhizotron for studies of plant behaviour and root dynamics

植物根的生长一般是看不见的。 然而，它们的隐蔽性质并不等于缺乏生态重要性。 在许多系统中，如草地，大部分生物量是植物的根，而不是芽。 根系生长动态的变化将对碳氮循环产生重要影响。 更广泛地说，植物寻找和获取资源的过程令人惊讶地知之甚少，这在很大程度上是由于实验观察的困难。 因此，目前还不清楚植物如何与邻居的根系相互作用，以及植物是否隔离土壤或保持高水平的根系重叠。 这一问题对生产力、植物竞争相互作用和生物多样性的维持具有重要影响。 为了解决这两个研究领域，我要求资金购买一个迷你roottron相机系统，通常被称为“根潜望镜”。 该相机允许对土壤中的根系进行重复的非破坏性观察。 这些数据，然后用来估计根周转和根系生长的模式。 我的实验室目前有一个这样的相机，虽然它现在已经9岁了，并结束了它的功能寿命。 光学技术的改进大大提高了图像质量，从而提高了数据的精度。 如果在现有相机最终失效之前未能获得新相机，将对我的研究计划的两个主要领域产生巨大的负面影响。

Plant roots grow generally invisible to observation. Their hidden nature, however, does not equate to a lack of ecological importance. In many systems, such as grasslands, the majority of the living biomass is plant roots, rather than shoots. Changes in root growth dynamics will have important implications for carbon and nitrogen cycling. Even more broadly, the processes by which plant seek out and acquire resources are surprisingly poorly understood, in large part due to the difficulty of experimental observation. As a result, it is unclear how plants will interact with the roots of neighbours, and whether plants segregrate soils or maintain high levels of root overlap. This issue has important consquences for productivity, plant competitive interactions, and the maintenance of biodiversity. To address both of these research areas, I am requesting funds for the purchase of a mini-rhizotron camera system, commonly called a 'root periscope'. The camera allows repeated, non-destructive observations of roots in the soil. These data are then used to estimate root turnover and patterns of root growth. My lab currently has one such camera, though it is now 9 years old and ending the end of its functional life. Improvements in optics have resulted in greatly improved image quality, leading to enhanced precision of data. Failure to acquire a new camera prior to the final failure of the existing camera will have dramatically negative impacts on two major areas of my research program.