E&E Seminar: “Belowground strategies and whole-plant phenology at The Morton Arboretum and beyond” by Luke McCormack (Morton Arboretum)
March 1, 2022
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Please join us on March 1, 2022 for a presentation by Luke McCormack (Morton Arboretum)
Host: Miquel Gonzalez-Meler
Abstract: Fine roots, together with their fungal partners, connect trees to nutrient and water resources in soils. While all trees must develop effective means to acquire these soil resources, the diversity of strategies used by trees is poorly understood. In this seminar, we will discuss recent advances in our efforts to characterize global root trait diversity, some notable gaps that emerge from this work, and our ongoing studies at The Morton Arboretum designed to address those gaps. First, to the weak representation of gymnosperms in global root trait analyses, we discuss a targeted study focused on quantifying root trait diversity in this unique plant group. Second, difficulties associated with repeated observations of the belowground environment have meant that phenology and lifespan dynamics have been largely left out of global analysis. Here, we present preliminary results from a diverse suite of monospecific forestry plots instrumented for long-term monitoring of belowground phenology complemented by continuous measurements of aboveground processes.
Date posted
Oct 12, 2021
Date updated
Feb 2, 2022