Whigham, D.F. and Simpson, R.L., 1978. The relationship between aboveground and belowground biomass of freshwater tidal wetland macrophytes. Aquat. Bot., 5: 355--364. Aboveground and belowground biomass relationships of 15 annual and perennial freshwater tidal wetland macrophytes were examined. The data showed that regression equations may be used with confidence to estimate belowground biomass...

Although belowground ecosystems have been studied extensively and soil biota play integral roles in biogeochemical processes, surprisingly we have a limited understanding of global patterns in belowground biomass and community structure. To address this critical gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of published data (> 1300 datapoints) to compare belowground plant, microbial and faunal biomass acr...

Coastal marshes depend on belowground biomass of roots and rhizomes to contribute to peat and soil organic carbon, accrete soil and alleviate flooding as sea level rises. For nutrient-limited plants, eutrophication has either reduced or stimulated belowground biomass depending on plant biomass allocation response to fertilization. Within a freshwater wetland impoundment receiving minimal sedime...

Broad-scale estimates of belowground biomass are needed to understand wetland resiliency and C and N cycling, but these estimates are difficult to obtain because root:shoot ratios vary considerably both within and between species. We used remotely-sensed estimates of two aboveground plant characteristics, aboveground biomass and % foliar N to explore biomass allocation in low diversity freshwat...

Aboveground and belowground biomass compartments of vegetation fulfil different functions and they are coupled by complex interactions. These compartments exchange water, carbon and nutrients and the belowground biomass compartment has the capacity to buffer vegetation dynamics when aboveground biomass is removed by disturbances such as herbivory or fire. However, despite their importance, root...

We investigated effects of plant species richness in experimental grassland plots on annual above- and belowground biomass production estimated from repeated harvests and ingrowth cores, respectively. Aboveground and total biomass production increased with increasing plant species richness while belowground production remained constant. Root to shoot biomass production ratios (R/S) in mixtures ...

Noah Fierer,* Michael S. Strickland, Daniel Liptzin, Mark A. Bradford and Cory C. Cleveland Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA Department of Environmental Scie...

Intraspecific genetic variation can affect decomposition, nutrient cycling, and interactions between plants and their associated belowground communities. However, the effects of genetic variation on ecosystems can also be indirect, meaning that genes in a focal plant may affect ecosystems by altering the phenotype of interacting (i.e., neighboring) individuals. We manipulated genotype identity,...

1. Knowledge of biomass partitioning is essential for estimating spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of root biomass in terrestrial ecosystems. The isometric hypothesis predicts that aboveground biomass scales isometrically with belowground biomass across both individual plants and community types (i.e. the slope of the log–log relationship between aboveand belowground biomass is not signifi...

Nitrogen (N) deposition has been steadily increasing for decades, with consequences for soil respiration. However, we have a limited understanding of how soil respiration responds to N availability. Here, we investigated the soil respiration responses to low and high levels of N addition (0.4 mol N m(-2) yr(-1) vs 1.6 mol N m(-2) yr(-1)) over a two-year period in a semiarid Leymus chinensis gra...