AN ARCHITECTURAL APPROACH TO THE COMPARATIVE ECOLOGY OF PLANT ROOT SYSTEMS

摘要: Although plants devote a large proportion of their resources to roots, we have a poor understanding of the constraints under which root systems function. Roots are much less variable morphologically than leaves and it is likely that root systems rather than individual roots are the focus of natural selection. In other words, architecture is more important than morphology. Existing classifications of root systems, based on the developmental model, have failed to provide much insight into their functioning and an alternative, topological …