Information
Maximum root depth RDmax depends mainly on soil factors like texture, compaction, underlying bedrock, clefts, and further physical and chemical properties of the solum. It The determines the maximum depth of water and nutrient uptake from the soil profile. On sites where soil layers like clay bands prevent vertical water flow, or groundwater is considerably close to surface, requirements are not suitable for deep rooting plants as anoxic areas impede conditions for root growth. Depth of tree roots are further defined by the root shape. Tap roots of trees grow generally further into the soil compared to plate or heart shaped root systems (Breuer et al. 2002).
Measurements of the rooting depths is a destructive technique in which plant roots have to be excavated. Authors usually present data for the deepest root found in solum (Köstler, 1968), whereas in some cases researchers divided data into root classes and published depth for the specific root class.
Even though the focus in the collection of maximum root depths lays on species from mid European ecosystems maximum root depths of temperate vegetation types in other temperate regions will not differ much as they mainly depend on physical soil properties (Kutschera 1960, Köstler 1968, Sitte et al. 1999).
References
Breuer L, Eckhardt K, Frede H-G, 2003. Plant parameter values for models in temperate climates. Ecol Model 169, 237-293.
- Köstler JN, Brückner E, Bibelriether H, 1968. Die Wurzeln der Waldbäume. Paul Parey,Hamburg, 284 pp. (in German)
- Kutschera L, 1960. Wurzelatlas mitteleuropäischer Ackerunkräuter und Kulturpflanzen. DLG-Verlags-GmbH, Frankfurt, 574 pp. (in German)
- Sitte P, Ziegler H, Ehrendorfer F, Bresinsky A, 1999. Lehrbuch der Botanik, 34. Aufl. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Heidelberg, 1007 pp. (in German)
