A comparison of four different fine root production estimates with.pdf

Plant and Soil 239: 237–251, 2002. ? 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 237 A comparison of four different fine root production estimates with ecosystem carbon balance data in a Fagus–Quercus mixed forest Dietrich Hertel Christoph Leuschner Plant Ecology, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, G?ttingen University, D-37073 G?ttingen, Germany (Tel.: +49-551-39-5708; fax: +49-551-39-5701; e-mail: dhertel@gwdg.de, cleusch@gwdg.de) Received 9 April 2001. Accepted 18 November 2001 Key words: Compartmental flow calculation, fine root biomass, root necromass, ingrowth cores, minimum- maximum calculation, root growth chamber approach, sequential soil coring Abstract The controversy on how to measure fine root production of forests (P) most accurately continues. We applied four different approaches to determine annual rates of P in an old-growth temperate Fagus sylvatica–Quercus petraea stand: sequential soil coring with minimum–maximum calculation, sequential coring with compartmental flow calculation, the ingrowth core method, and a recently developed root chamber method for measuring the growth of individual fine roots in situ. The results of the four destructive approaches differed by an order of magnitude and, thus, are likely to introduce large errors in estimating P. The highest annual rates of P were obtained from the sequential coring approach with compartmental flow calculation, intermediate rates by sequential coring with minimum–maximum calculation, and low ones by both the root growth chamber and ingrowth core approaches. A carbon budget for the stand was set up based on a model of annual net carbon gain by the canopy and measurements on carbon sink strength (annual leaf, branch and stem growth). The budget implied that a maximum of 27% of the net carbon gain was available for allocation to fine root growth. When compared to the carbon budget data, the sequential coring/compartmental flow approach overestimated annual fine r