The interactions between plant roots and soil are an area of active research, particularly in terms of water and nutrient uptake. Because noninvasive, in vivo studies are required, tomographic imaging appears an obvious method to use, but no one imaging modality is well suited to capture the complete system. X‐ray imaging gives clear insight to soil structure and composition; however, water is comparatively transparent to X‐rays and biological matter also displays poor contrast with respect to the pores between soil particles. Neutron imaging presents a complementary view where water and biological matter are better distinguished but the soil minerals are not imaged as clearly as they would be with X‐rays.

中文翻译：

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使用镉基准标记的根系相关 X 射线和中子断层扫描

植物根系和土壤之间的相互作用是一个活跃的研究领域，特别是在水和养分吸收方面。由于需要非侵入性的体内研究，因此断层成像似乎是一种显而易见的使用方法，但没有一种成像方式非常适合捕获完整的系统。X 射线成像可以清楚地了解土壤结构和成分；然而，水对 X 射线相对透明，生物物质与土壤颗粒之间的孔隙也显示出较差的对比度。中子成像提供了一种互补的观点，可以更好地区分水和生物物质，但土壤矿物质的成像不如 X 射线成像清晰。