Bringing function to structure: Root-soil interactions shaping phosphatase activity throughout a soil profile in Puerto Rico.

ABSTRACT: Large areas of highly productive tropical forests occur on weathered soils with low concentrations of available phosphorus (P). In such forests, root and microbial production of acid phosphatase enzymes capable of mineralizing organic phosphorus is considered vital to increasing available P for plant uptake.We measured both root and soil phosphatase throughout depth and alongside a variety of root and soil factors to better understand the potential of roots and soil biota to increase P availability and to constrain estimates of the biochemical mineralization within ecosystem models.We measured soil phosphatase down to 1 m, root phosphatase to 30 cm, and collected data on fine-root mass density, specific root length, soil P, bulk density, and soil texture using soil cores in four tropical f

SUBMITTER: Cabugao KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7863403 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature