A quantitative evaluation of soil mass held by tree roots
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A quantitative evaluation of soil mass held by tree roots Toko Tanikawa1,2 · Hidetoshi Ikeno3 · Chikage Todo4,7 · Keitaro Yamase4 · Mizue Ohashi3 · Toru Okamoto2 · Takeo Mizoguchi2 · Katsuhiro Nakao2 · Shinji Kaneko2 · Atsushi Torii2 · Yoshiyuki Inagaki5 · Asami Nakanishi6 · Yasuhiro Hirano7 Received: 16 July 2020 / Accepted: 17 October 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Key message Tree roots hold soil that is dramatically heavier than the tree biomass, wet or dried. This soil might compensate for the imbalance between above- and belowground mass. Abstract Root–soil plates are recognized to play an important role in root anchorage of plate-like root system, however, actual measurements of their mass have rarely been reported. Even though the root–soil plate mass is often estimated using aboveground allometric indices, no research confirms the validity. Seven root–soil plates of Cryptomeria japonica fallen by Typhoon Jebi were divided into roots and soil, and their weights were directly measured. Mass of the seven plates ranged from 251 to 3070 kg on a dry basis. Roots accounted for 8% of total plate mass and soil for 92%. The mass of the soil held in the plates was 2.8 times greater than tree biomass. The root-to-shoot biomass ratio was 0.26, whereas the ratio of root–soil plate mass to shoot biomass was 3.9, meaning that the root–soil plate mass was much greater than aboveground biomass. These results suggest that the soil mass held in the plate is the main component of whole-tree mass including the plate. The root system holds soil weighing as much as 13 times the root system’s mass. The soil might balance the aboveground weight of the tree by adding mass. Aboveground allometric indices are good indicators of root–soil plate mass and allow the belowground mass to be estimated to understand tree anchorage without soil disturbance. Keywords Disaster · Root anchorage · Root–soil plate · Tree stability · Uprooting · Windthrow
Introduction Root anchorage is an important factor in a tree’s tolerance of slope failures associated with intense rainfall and storms, which are becoming more frequent with climate change, Communicated by DesRochers . Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-020-02054-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Toko Tanikawa [email protected]‑u.ac.jp 1
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464‑8601, Japan
2
Kansai Research Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 68 Nagaikyutaro, Momoyama, Fushimi, Kyoto 612‑0855, Japan
3
School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, Himeji, Hyogo 670‑0092, Japan
and against tsunamis associated with huge earthquakes. Windthrow studies in forests have gained popularity over the last few decades because of the importance of tree stability to both the environment and society (Sagi et al. 2019). Some recent studies ha
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