Background

The ecological study of root systems lags behind the understanding of the aboveground components of plant communities, mainly due to methodological challenges. As ecological root theory develops complexity, root investigation methods are required to meet higher standards of quantitative and detailed data.

Scope

Spatial root density distribution of plants represents one of the main features pursued in ecological studies, as it provides insight into root foraging behavior and belowground competition. To study root density, ecologists should preferably use and develop methods with the potential to provide the most comprehensive information: Individual Root Density Distribution (IRDD), i.e. individual-level and spatially-explicit root density maps. Here, we review the existing methods to detect roots in the field (detection methods), and to infer the identity of these roots (identification methods). We discuss potential combinations of Detection and Identification (DI) methods, and the data quality that these combinations yield in respect to IRDD.

Conclusion

We anticipate that root field ecologists progressively may want to adopt DI methods showing the highest potential to provide high-quality IRDD. These methods are (i) ground-penetrating radar or acoustic tomography in combination with tracking the roots to the individual plant (i.e. skeleton method sensu lato), (ii) soil sampling in combination with in situ root staining (for physiological individuals), or (iii) soil sampling in combination with DNA microsatellites or single nucleotide polymorphism sequencing (for genetic individuals).

中文翻译：

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研究单个植物空间根系密度分布的田间方法

背景

根系的生态学研究落后于对植物群落地上部分的了解，这主要是由于方法学上的挑战。随着生态根理论日益复杂，需要根调查方法来满足更高的定量和详细数据标准。

范围

植物的空间根系密度分布代表了生态学研究的主要特征之一，因为它可以洞察根系觅食行为和地下竞争。为了研究根系密度，生态学家应优先使用和开发有潜力提供最全面信息的方法：个体根系密度分布（IRDD），即个体水平和空间明确的根系密度图。在这里，我们回顾了现有的方法来检测该字段中的根（检测方法），并推断这些根的身份（标识方法）。我们讨论了检测和识别（DI）方法的潜在组合，以及这些组合相对于IRDD产生的数据质量。

结论

我们预计，根领域生态学家可能会逐步采用具有最高潜力的DI方法，以提供高质量的IRDD。这些方法是（i）穿透地面的雷达或声波断层扫描，结合对单个植物的根进行追踪（即骨架方法sensu lato），（ii）结合原位根染色的土壤采样（对于生理个体），或（iii）与DNA微卫星或单核苷酸多态性测序相结合的土壤采样（针对遗传个体）。