Lugli, L.F. et al

Fine root morphological properties in fertilised plots in the Central Amazon, 2018

https://doi.org/10.5285/4ccaab66-2818-41b8-8b31-1a710766c5d6 Cite this dataset

The data consists of morphological properties of fine roots in old growth forests in Central Amazon. Fine roots younger than three months were sampled using the ingrowth core technique in a large-scale nutrient fertilisation experiment. Morphological properties are given as a mean of the plant community per plot, where five points inside each plot were sampled and separated in two different soil layers (0-10 and 10-30cm).

Samples were collected in February 2018, eight months after the nutrient fertilisation started at the AFEX project area in Manaus, Brazil at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP/ INPA).

The study was funded by NERC, BDFFP (logistical support) and Brazilian government (student scholarship).

Publication date: 2020-04-02

Where/When

Study area
Temporal extent: 2018-02-01 to 2018-09-30

Provenance & quality

Fine roots in both soil depths (0-10 and 10-30 cm) were subsampled and fine roots <2mm diameter were used to determine root morphological traits and subsequently dried at 60 ˚C to determine dry root mass. Root subsamples were scanned at 600 dpi and analysed using WinRHIZO (WinRHIZO Regular 2015, Regent Instruments, Canada) to provide root mean diameter, total length, area and volume. These were used to determine specific root length (SRL), specific root area (SRA), root tissue density (RTD) and mean root diameter. SRL (cm g-1) was calculated as root length per unit root dry mass, SRA (cm2 g-1) was calculated as root superficial area per unit dry mass and RTD (g cm-3) was calculated as root dry mass per unit root volume.