Biopore-Induced Deep Root Traits of Two Winter Crops

Ning Huang, Miriam Athmann and Eusun Han
Additional contact information
Ning Huang: Department of Agroecology and Organic Farming, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 6, 53121 Bonn, Germany
Miriam Athmann: Department of Agroecology and Organic Farming, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 6, 53121 Bonn, Germany
Eusun Han: Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Højbakkegård Alle 13, 2630 Taastrup, Denmark

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: Deeper root growth can be induced by increased biopore density. In this study, we aimed to compare deep root traits of two winter crops in field conditions in response to altered biopore density as affected by crop sequence. Two fodder crop species—chicory and tall fescue—were grown for two consecutive years as preceding crops (pre-crops). Root traits of two winter crops—barley and canola, which were grown as subsequent crops (post-crops)—were measured using the profile wall and soil monolith method. While barley and canola differed greatly in deep root traits, they both significantly increased rooting density inside biopores by two-fold at soil depths shallower than 100 cm. A similar increase in rooting density in the bulk soil was observed below 100 cm soil depth. As a result, rooting depth significantly increased (>5 cm) under biopore-rich conditions throughout the season of the winter crops. Morphological root traits revealed species-wise variation in response to altered biopore density, in which only barley increased root size under biopore-rich conditions. We concluded that large-sized biopores induce deeper rooting of winter crops that can increase soil resource acquisition potential, which is considered to be important for agricultural systems with less outsourced farm resources, e.g., Organic Agriculture. Crops with contrasting root systems can respond differently to varying biopore density, especially root morphology, which should be taken into account upon exploiting biopore-rich conditions in arable fields. Our results also indicate the need for further detailed research with a greater number of species, varieties and genotypes for functional classification of root plasticity against the altered subsoil structure.

Keywords: biopores; root traits; pre-crops; winter crops; deep roots; PCA; root plasticity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/12/634/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/12/634/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:12:p:634-:d:462029

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().