Spatial Heterogeneity of Fine Root Biomass and Soil Carbon in a California Oak Savanna Illuminates Plant Functional Strategy Across Periods of High and Low Resource Supply

Abstract:

We sampled isolated trees and tree clusters from a blue oak, Quercus douglasii, savanna in California USA to determine the spatial heterogeneity of fine root biomass and soil carbon across the landscape as a function of tree size, age and configuration. Our goal was to understand how fine root structure enables sustained ecosystem metabolism through a summer of very limited moisture availability and high heat, and facilitates resource acquisition during the short spring period of high resource supply. An additional goal was to provide a basis for upscaling root biomass and soil carbon to the landscape scale. We sampled trees of different size and tree clusters via a stratified sampling scheme that accounted for spatial heterogeneity in root biomass and soil carbon with lateral distance from the tree bole, or cluster center, and soil depth. We upscaled these estimates using site-specific information from a lidar survey conducted in the same region over a 36 ha area in 2009. We found that fine roots and soil carbon are spatially heterogeneous in their landscape distribution in oak savanna habitat, and that they greatly increase with tree size and age. We also found that Q. douglasii possesses a dimorphic fine root architecture, uniquely suited to the region’s climatic constraints, and exhibits morphological plasticity among trees of different size, age, and physical setting.