Soil is essential for sustaining life on land. Plant roots play a crucial role in stabilising soil and minimising erosion, although these mechanisms are still not completely understood. Consequently, identifying and breeding for plant traits to enhance erosion resistance is challenging. Root hair mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana were studied using three different quantitative methods to isolate their effect on root-soil cohesion. We present compelling evidence that micro-scale interactions of root hairs with surrounding soil increase soil cohesion and reduce erosion. Arabidopsis seedlings with root hairs were more difficult to detach from soil, compost and sterile gel media than those with hairless roots, and it was 10-times harder to erode soil from roots with than without hairs. We also developed a model that can consistently predict the impact root hairs make to soil erosion resistance. Our study thus provides new insight into the mechanisms by which roots maintain soil stability.

土壤对于维持陆地生命至关重要。植物根在稳定土壤和最大程度地减少侵蚀方面起着至关重要的作用，尽管这些机理仍未完全了解。因此，鉴定和育种植物性状以增强抗侵蚀性具有挑战性。拟南芥根毛突变体研究人员使用三种不同的定量方法研究了它们对根-土内聚力的影响。我们提供令人信服的证据，证明根毛与周围土壤的微观相互作用增加了土壤的内聚力并减少了侵蚀。与没有毛的根相比，带有根毛的拟南芥幼苗更难从土壤，堆肥和无菌凝胶介质中分离出来，并且从有根的土壤上侵蚀土壤的难度是没有毛的根的十倍。我们还开发了一个模型，可以始终预测根毛对土壤侵蚀的影响。因此，我们的研究为根系维持土壤稳定性的机制提供了新的见解。