Belowground competition in a broad-leaved temperate mixed forest: pattern analysis and experiments in a four-species stand

By Boris Rewald, Christoph Leuschner. European Journal of Forest Research, 2009

111 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We investigated fine root biomass and distribution patterns in a species-rich temperate Carpinus–Quercus–Fagus–Tilia forest and searched for experimental evidence of symmetry or asymmetry in belowground competition. We conducted extensive root coring and applied the recently introduced in situ-root growth chamber technique for quantifying fine root growth under experimentally altered intra- and interspecific root neighbourhoods in the intact stand. In 75% of all soil cores, fine roots of more than two tree species were present indicating a broad overlap of the root systems of neighbouring trees. Quercus trees had more than ten times less fine root biomass in relation to aboveground biomass or productivity (stem growth) and a much higher leaf area index/root area index ratio than Carpinus, Fagus and Tilia trees. The root growth chamber experiments indicated a high belowground competitive ability of Fagus in interspecific interactions, but a low one of Quercus. We conclude that (1) interspecific root competition is ubiquitous in this mixed stand, (2) root competition between trees can be clearly asymmetric, and (3) tree species may be ranked according to their belowground competitive ability. Fagus was found to be the most successful species in belowground competition which matches with its superiority in aboveground competition in this forest community.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/4080669c8663905c49d73f80496ed24c9559d212

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Citations in the corpus

No evidence of spatial root system segregation and elevated fine root biomass in multi-species temperate broad-leaved forests (2009, background): “While Ho ¨lscher et al. (2002) found a maximum horizontal extension of only ca. 8 m for fine roots of Fagus and Tilia, Hertel (1999) reported a maximum horizontal distance of Quercus fine roots from the nearest stem of [12 m, and Rewald and Leuschner (2009) found a maximum root extension of even 3”
Analyzing size-symmetric vs. size-asymmetric and intra- vs. inter-specific competition in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) mixed stands (2014, background): “sylvatica displays greater competitive ability than oak in inter-specific interactions (Leuschner et al., 2001; Rewald and Leuschner, 2009), which might result in a negative effect of beech on oak.”
Functional diversity enhances silver fir growth resilience to an extreme drought (2016, background): “On the other hand, most competition indices rely on the size and status of trees regarding above-ground features, whilst below-ground processes are largely ignored (Rewald & Leuschner 2009).”
Co‐occurrence patterns of trees along macro‐climatic gradients and their potential influence on the present and future distribution of Fagus sylvatica L. (2011, background): “Experimental studies where species are grown in manipulated mixtures (e.g. Perkins et al., 2007; Rewald & Leuschner, 2009) clearly provide greater inference.”
Overyielding in mixed forests decreases with site productivity (2015, result): “These results are in accordance with previous findings that have shown the high below-ground and above-ground competitiveness of beech (Rewald & Leuschner 2009; Longuetaud et al. 2013).”