I am doing review about plant root length but the most of papers do not provide this information. The papers usually provide root length density. So I want to calculate the root length using root length density. May you help me?
Hi,
please contact my colleague, Dr. Michael Adu, via [email protected]
I believe he can help. cheers.
Dear Teruo Matos,
A simplified procedure has been formulated and tested for determining average root length density (RLD) by auger sampling at a single site in wheat, corn and mustard. It involves the determination of horizontal root distribution in the representative half of the unit soil strip (distance from base of plant to mid-point in the rows) by excavating small monolith segments in the top soil layer. Average RLD is computed by dividing the integral of polynomial function fitted to the horizontal root distribution (in the unit soil strip) with its length. The average RLD, thus, obtained is interpolated on the curve between root length density and horizontal distance from the plant base (d) in the representative half of the unit soil strip. Root length density determined by cantering 5 cm diameter auger at the interpolated d gave minimum deviation from the average RLD of that layer compared to the other possible single site sampling schemes with same-sized auger. These results indicate that for row crops, the best centre for single-site auguring is about one-third of distance from the plant base to mid-way between the two rows. Measurement of root system attributes is of critical importance to understand and model plant growth. Root length density, the length of roots per unit volume of soil, is one of the important parameters required to understand plant performance. Measuring techniques currently in use to assess this parameter, such as for example core washing, are notoriously imprecise and labour-intensive. Roots and soil being inextricably linked, it is virtually impossible to separate them without losing a significant amount of the root sample to be measured. This noticeably compromises the accuracy of washing techniques. For this reason, non-invasive measurement approaches are highly desirable. Here, a method based on the combination of X-radiography and image analysis is proposed as a new alternative for the measurement of root length density from intact samples. The successive steps of the method, from sampling to image acquisition are briefly described. A specific measurement algorithm, designed to account for the complex spatial arrangement of the roots within the samples is then presented and discussed in detail.
Regards,
Prem Baboo
Thank you for the contribution! I need to know how to calculate the plant root length using plant root length density?
Mr. Maruyama,the following paper may help you:
Recovering root system traits using image analysis exemplified by two-dimensional neutron radiography images of lupine by Daniel Leitner et al Plant Physiology ,January 2014 vol.164,pp.24-35.
www.plantphysiol.org/content/164/1/24.full.pdf
www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.227892
before I descrip it , we need to know what RLd is
its the division of roots length to soil volume.
firstly , you need to account the length of roots using a cylinder or core with a 20 cm in diameter and height to reach to the maximum depth of soil roots.
then wash roots by running water and oven_dried at 40 C , then measure length is quite differently estimated ;
some researchers take about the highest 10 roots on average while others account the whole length inside the core, mostly reach to 10 m using a ruler but quite exusted .
once you got the length then you ready to divide the length (cm) to volume of core ( cm3)
best wishes
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agricultural Science
- Soil Science
- Soil Analysis