Measuring Roots An Updated Approach
Roots represent half of the plant body – and arguably the more interesting half. Despite its obvious importance for the whole plant, until recently our knowledge of the root apparatus was very limited, mostly due to the inadequacy of the techniques availa
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Stefano Mancuso Editor
Measuring Roots An Updated Approach
Editor Prof. Dr. Stefano Mancuso Dpt. Plant, Soil & Environment University of Firenze Viale delle idee 30, Sesto Fiorentino (FI) – Italy [email protected]
ISBN 978-3-642-22066-1 e-ISBN 978-3-642-22067-8 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-22067-8 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011940210 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
The real complexity of and adult root system can be barely conceived if we think that one single plant of rye excavated by Dittmer (1937) consisted of 13,815,672 branches and had a length of 622 km, a surface area of 237 m2 and root hairs for 11,000 km. Furthermore, this complex network of widespread roots and subtle rootlets is laid bare in the soil and can be recovered from it only with great struggle. Thus, it is easy to understand why determining the position, the area, the degree of branching and other root characteristics has been for centuries a peculiarly difficult problem. Roots represent half of the plant body: possibly the most interesting. This invisible part of the plant spreads widely through the soil and adsorbs the water and nutrients that, together with the carbon dioxide taken from the air, represent the material out of which the world’s food supply is manufactured by. They give anchorage to the plant, frequently accumulate reserve foods and in some cases also represent a reproductive organ. Furthermore, according to Charles Darwin (1880), roots are the “anterior” pole of the plant, characterized by “brain-like” characteristics in opposition with its posterior end bearing the organs of sexual reproduction. Despite the obvious importance for the whole plant, our comprehension of the root apparatus has been for long time annoyingly limited, mostly due to inadequacy in the techniques available. This situation just recently changed thanks to the advancement in visualization and measurement of roots that resulted in a significant progress of our understanding of the architecture and behaviour of the plant’s hidden half. Howeve
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