Hi all，
I want to do some measurement of the root depth of plants (including shrub,
grass and forb). Excavation of the whole plant root system is most
straightforward but hard to get permission for, especially for shrubs. Do
you guys have any idea how to measure/extrapolate root depth with minimum
impact on plants and soil?
Thank you so much!
Cheers,
Jade
(P.S.: I've found from literature two alternatives, one of which is to
sample soil cores near the gamet and measure root biomass at each depth
level then extrapolate 95% root depth, the other is to inject tracer into
certain depth of soil and see whether it can be detected in plants. Both
seem complicated and potentially destructive;b I am under the impression
that plant above ground height should be somehow correlated to root depth.
Is there any way of inferring root depth from this too?)
--
Yu Zhang (Jade)
Ph.D Student in Environment Science, Policy and Management
College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Tel: (+1) 510-3257206
Email: elizabeth...@gmail.com
Skype: ElizaZ663
