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Structural root architecture of 5-year-old Pinus pinaster measured by 3D digitising and analysed with AMAPmod

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The Supporting Roots of Trees and Woody Plants: Form, Function and Physiology

Part of the book series: Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences ((DPSS,volume 87))

Abstract

Pinus pinaster (Ait.) is a high yielding forest tree, producing nearly a fourth of French marketed timber essentially from intensively managed stands located in southwestern France, in the Landes Forest. This species has generally a poor stem straightness, especially when it grows in poor sandy podzol of the Landes Forest, affected by summer droughts and winter floods. Above- and below-ground architecture and biomass as well as stem straightness were measured on twenty-nine 5-year-old planted trees uprooted by pulling with a lumbering crane. A very precise numeric representation of the geometry and topology of structural root architecture was gained using a low-magnetic-field digitising device (Danjon et al., 1998; Sinoquet and Rivet, 1997). Data were analysed with AMAPmod, a database software designed to analyse plant topological structures (Godin et al., 1997). Several characteristics of root architecture were extracted by queries including root number, length, diameter, volume, spatial position, ramification order, branching angle and inter-laterals length. Differences between root systems originated from their dimensions, but also from the proportion of deep roots and the taproot size, which represented 8% of the total root volume. The proportion of root volume in the zone of rapid taper was negatively correlated with the proportion of root volume in the taproot indicating a compensation between taproot and main lateral root volume. Among all studied root characteristics the maximal rooting depth, the proportion of deep roots and the root partitioning coefficient were correlated with stem straightness.

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Abbreviations

3D:

three-dimensional

SAL:

stump angle of lean

ZRT:

zone of rapid taper

RPC:

root partitioning coefficient

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Danjon, F., Bert, D., Godin, C., Trichet, P. (2000). Structural root architecture of 5-year-old Pinus pinaster measured by 3D digitising and analysed with AMAPmod. In: Stokes, A. (eds) The Supporting Roots of Trees and Woody Plants: Form, Function and Physiology. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 87. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3469-1_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3469-1_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5318-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3469-1

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