Fine root, although sharing a very small percentage to total plant biomass, is one of the major belowground components of the NPP.
Despite the recent advances in examining root distribution and biomass with ground-penetrating radar [8 12], the belowground component of trees is still poorly known because, traditionally, it requires labour- and time-intensive in situ measurements [13].
Despite the recent advances in examining root distribution and biomass with ground-penetrating radar [ 8– 12], the belowground component of trees is still poorly known because, traditionally, it requires labour- and time-intensive in situ measurements [ 13].
Ongoing debates about whether tropical forests are a source or sink for atmospheric carbon have led to increased interest in the belowground components of their carbon cycle [12] because they also contribute almost 30% to global soil carbon storage [13].
Examining the spatial interactions between above and belowground components of terrestrial ecosystems can give meaningful insight into the ecological processes happening at different scales.
DBH and height were used to estimate carbon using allometric equations of the form: B = b_{0} + b_{1} d^{2} h (1 where d is the diameter at breast height (DBH, in meters), h is the height above breast height (m), and B is the dry biomass (kg) for all the aboveground and belowground components of the tree [17].
The most salient results of this research for C stocks are that: 1) per ha, substantially more C was stored in the top m of soil (not including roots) than in aboveground biomass; and 2) as expected, both the above- and belowground components of wildlands contained consistently more C per ha than vineyards.
In agricultural systems, arbuscular mycorrhizae form associations with almost all important crops (maize, wheat, soybean, but not: cabbage, mustard and beet), and are therefore an intricate component of the above- as well as the belowground ecosystem.
In particular, a key component of the climate-adjusted model is an increased level of belowground allocation with decreasing temperatures given increasing nutrient limitation with colder temperatures [8].
