Aboveground herbivory induces physiological responses, like the release of belowground chemical defense and storage of secondary metabolites, as well as physical responses in plants, like increased root biomass production. However, studies on effects of aboveground herbivory on root morphology are scarce and until now no study tested herbivory effects under natural conditions for a large set of plant species. Therefore, in a field experiment on plant–soil interactions, I investigated the effect of aboveground insect herbivory on root morphological traits of 20 grassland plant species. For 9 of the 20 species, all individuals showed shoot damage in the presence of insect herbivores, but no damage in insect herbivore exclusions. In these 9 species root biomass increased and root morphological traits changed under herbivory towards thinner roots with increased specific root surface. In contrast, the remaining species did not differ in the number of individuals damaged, root biomass nor morphological traits with herbivores present vs. absent. The fact that aboveground herbivory resulted in thinner roots with increased specific root surface area for all species in which the herbivore exclusion manipulation altered shoot damage might indicate that plants increase nutrient uptake in response to herbivory. However, more importantly, results provide empirical evidence that aboveground herbivory impacts root morphological traits of plants. As these traits are important for the occupation of soil space, uptake processes, decomposition and interactions with soil biota, results suggest that herbivory-induced changes in root morphology might be of importance for plant–soil feedbacks and plant–plant competition.

地上食草动物诱导生理反应，例如释放地下化学防御和次级代谢产物的储存，以及植物体内的物理反应，例如增加根生物量的产生。然而，关于地上食草动物对根系形态的影响的研究很少，到目前为止，尚没有研究在自然条件下对大量植物物种测试食草作用。因此，在一项植物-土壤相互作用的田间试验中，我研究了地上昆虫食草对20种草原植物根系形态特征的影响。在20种中的9种中，所有个体在存在昆虫食草动物的情况下均显示出枝条受损，但在昆虫食草动物除外的情况下没有损害。在这9个物种中，在食草作用下，根系生物量增加，根系形态特征发生变化，向较薄的根系转变，比表面积增加。相反，其余物种在存在或不存在食草动物的情况下，受损害的个体数量，根生物量或形态特征没有差异。食草动物排斥操作改变了枝条损害的所有物种中，地上食草动物会导致根系变薄，比根表面积增加的事实，这可能表明植物响应于食草性而增加了养分吸收。但是，更重要的是，结果提供了经验证据，证明地上食草动物影响植物的根系形态特征。由于这些特征对于占用土壤空间，吸收过程，分解以及与土壤生物的相互作用至关重要，