Plant sizes and shapes above and belowground and their interactions with climate.

ABSTRACT: Although the above and belowground sizes and shapes of plants strongly influence plant competition, community structure, and plant-environment interactions, plant sizes and shapes remain poorly characterized across climate regimes. We investigated relationships among shoot and root system size and climate. We assembled and analyzed, to our knowledge, the largest global database describing the maximum rooting depth, lateral spread, and shoot size of terrestrial plants - more than doubling the Root Systems of Individual Plants database to 5647 observations. Water availability and growth form greatly influence shoot size, and rooting depth is primarily influenced by temperature seasonality. Shoot size is the strongest predictor of lateral spread, with root system diameter being two times wide

SUBMITTER: Tumber-Davila SJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9311740 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature