Background: Classifying vegetation into functional types is important to improve understanding of ecosystem functioning and to predict the influence of future climate change broadly and specifically. Identifying traits that differ between species and functional types is key to understand species’ functioning. Among traits, fine root traits, including chemical traits or concentrations of elements, are fundamental for plant functioning and environmental change response.
Methods: Samples from fine roots of fourteen species repeated six times each, were collected at Gelawdios church forest, Amhara region, Ethiopia. The six sites were separated by 200 meters (180 -200 meters). Chemical composition (concentration of elements) was analysed for the absorptive root of orders 1-3. Eleven elements (N, C, P, K, Ca, Mg, Al, Mn, Na, Fe and S) were analysed using different methods for CN (carbon and nitrogen) and the rest of nine elements.
Results: The studied chemical traits showed significant differences between many species and some functional groups. Carbon and nitrogen showed significant differences between species, but regarding functional groups, only the nitrogen difference was significant (concentrations ranged from 0.65% to 3.21% across species). Significance and non-significance were observed in the other nine elements (P, K, Ca, Mg, Al, Mn, Na, Fe and S) between species and at the same time between functional groups. The concentration values of elements are also highly variable between species.
Conclusion: The results indicated some higher, some similar and some lower values in comparison to global values and other research results. These differences and variations between species could be due to climatic and environmental resource differences at both in micro and macro levels. The study of biochemical root traits was very recommendable to see the extent of its effects on the determination of species’ functioning. Although the correlations of these traits were not as strong as the correlations of morphological traits, the difference was wide, indicating that these traits are crucial in functioning and hence in the life strategy of plants. This study has a profound contribution for the understanding of tropical regions’ root traits and hence for the improvement of global biogeochemical models.
concentration of elements, root traits, biochemical traits, dry afromontane forest, ecological processes, functional types
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