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- Title
Lolium perenne L. root systems are a collection of Gaussian curve shaped meso diameter class length distributions.
- Authors
Zobel, Richard
- Abstract
Aims: Determine if the root system of Lolium perenne L. (L perenne) is a continuous distribution of diameters, or a collection of discrete diameters classes. Methods: Plants from tillers of five clones were grown in a local soil amended with lime. Roots were excavated after they were grown in soil for 54 days, washed and imaged with both a commercial scanner (94 px mm) and a high resolution, locally built, imager (204 px mm). Images were converted to diameter class length data with WinRhizo. Results: Scanned images did not have enough resolution to accurately measure fine roots diameters (<0.09 mm diam.). Therefore the high resolution images were used. The diameter class length distributions (DCLD) of these images demonstrated diameter class clusters (meso diameter classes) which could be modeled with a non-linear Gaussian (normal) curve model. Recreating the whole root system from a compilation of the DCLD, regenerated from the three parameters of each of the Gaussian curves for the root system, produced a distribution visually identical to the original whole root system curve. Conclusions: L perenne root systems are a collection of meso diameter classes easily described by non-linear Gaussian models. The data set of the parameters from these models is much smaller than a WinRhizo data set, and can reconstruct the original whole system DCLD.
- Subjects
LOLIUM perenne; GAUSSIAN distribution; DISTRIBUTION (Probability theory); PLANT-soil relationships; CLONAL forestry; FORESTRY biotechnology; PLANT clones; TREE propagation
- Publication
Plant & Soil, 2013, Vol 363, Issue 1/2, p113
- ISSN
0032-079X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11104-012-1298-0