The Influence of Mineral Nutrition on the Root Development of Trees

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Abstract
Lodgepole pine seedlings were grown in solution culture with their root systems divided between two contrasting nutrient regimes, viz. a high regime, which provided near optimum conditions for growth, and a low regime in which nutrients were limiting. The high nutrient regime stimulated root growth whereas the roots receiving a low level of nutrients grew comparatively slowly and in certain instances stopped elongating and became brown. After differential root growth had been induced certain plants were transferred to a uniform high nutrient environment and the previously deprived parts of the root system responded by renewed growth and their growth rate increased in comparison with roots which remained in low nutrient conditions. The results show that initial nutritional differences in the environment do not lead to dominance in certain roots; the root system remains remarkably plastic.

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