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Better modeling of root-soil interactions by explicit representation of soil hardness
  • Christopher Black,
  • Schäfer Ernst,
  • Jonathan Lynch
Christopher Black
Pennsylvania State University Main Campus

Corresponding Author:ckb23@psu.edu

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Schäfer Ernst
Pennsylvania State University Main Campus
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Jonathan Lynch
University of Nottingham
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Abstract

The vertical distribution of plant roots in the soil profile is a key trait modulating plant contributions to soil carbon storage, drought and nutrient stress resistance, yield, and fitness. However, direct sampling of deep roots requires massive effort, so existing data are sparse and many researchers have adopted modeling approaches to fill data gaps and generate hypotheses about how soil properties change the biogeochemical, agricultural, ecological, and hydrologic consequences of root depth. Such models are useful only if they correctly represent the processes of interest and give accurate predictions of the root systems they simulate. Most current root growth models represent soil as a uniform and unrestrictive medium. This is often a reasonable simplification when modeling roots grown in pots or artificial media, but is less so for field soils which often increase in density, hardness, and heterogeneity with depth. To better predict the effect of soil hardness on root distribution, we updated the structural-functional root growth model OpenSimRoot to explicitly predict soil hardness from soil bulk density, water content, porosity, and depth. Root growth impedance is curently represented by linear scaling of the root elongation rate according to soil hardness. Future work will incorporate configurable growth responses and allow hardness to control changes in root diameter and growth direction, thus allowing the model to examine the fitness implications of carbon reallocation in complex structured soils. Our updated OpenSimRoot captured >50% of observed variation in penetrometer resistance from field soils. When we incorporated soil hardness into simulations of maize growth, we observed a substantial reduction in the predicted root:shoot ratio that overwhelmed previous model predictions of increased water uptake from steeper root angles. These findings reinforce that models considering costs and benefits of deep rooting should routinely consider soil hardess.