AN AUTOMATED CALCULATION OF PLANT ROOT DISTRIBUTION PARAMETERS BASED ON ROOT LENGTH DENSITY DATA
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2019, ALKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary. Pattern of vertical distribution of plant roots determines plant water and nutrient uptake and influences various soil processes under field conditions. However, information of root distribution in the whole rooting profile is rarely available in practice. This paper documents a method to quickly quantify root vertical distribution pattern using limited root length density data obtained from soil cores under field conditions. It was implemented through the development of a Minitab macro and an R script, with sample calculations conducted on field collected root length density data from the winter wheat crop in Texas, USA. The method is potentially useful for quantifying plant root activities in natural soils where deep roots are difficult to access by physical means and data of root length density distribution are only available in the upper root zone.
