Kong Deliang, Ma Chengen
School of Life Sciences, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China.
Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Sci Rep. 2014 May 28;4:5078. doi: 10.1038/srep05078.
The terminal root branch orders composed mainly of primarily-developed tissues are increasingly recognized as an ephemeral module specialized for resource absorption. This root module is crucial in driving a range of ecosystem processes such as belowground productivity, carbon and nutrient cycling. Traditionally, acquisition of the ephemeral root module is achieved by separating these primarily-developed branch orders with forceps. However, obtaining this root segment with forceps approach is labor-intensive which may not be applicable for studies with an appreciable amount of root samples. To address this challenge, we developed a new idea to obtain the ephemeral root module. In this new view, root samples were tenderly kneaded by hand and the detached roots are considered as the ephemeral root module. To test this idea, four species with contrasting growing environment were selected and a range of chemicals were determined including C, N, P, Ca, S, Mg, Ba, Zn, Mn, Pb, Cu, V and Li. We found no or little difference of these chemicals in roots by hand-kneading approach from roots by forceps approach. These results suggested that hand-kneading method could be a convenient way to acquire ephemeral root module.
主要由初生发育组织构成的末端根分支序越来越被认为是一种专门用于资源吸收的临时模块。这个根模块对于驱动一系列生态系统过程至关重要，例如地下生产力、碳和养分循环。传统上，获取临时根模块是通过用镊子分离这些初生发育的分支序来实现的。然而，用镊子方法获取这个根段劳动强度大，可能不适用于需要大量根样本的研究。为应对这一挑战，我们提出了一种获取临时根模块的新方法。在这个新方法中，用手轻轻揉搓根样本，分离出的根被视为临时根模块。为验证这一方法，我们选择了四种生长环境不同的物种，并测定了一系列化学元素，包括碳、氮、磷、钙、硫、镁、钡、锌、锰、铅、铜、钒和锂。我们发现，通过手揉法获得的根与通过镊子法获得的根在这些化学元素上没有差异或差异很小。这些结果表明，手揉法可能是获取临时根模块的一种简便方法。
