Distribution, biomass, and dynamics of roots in a revegetated stand of Caragana korshinskii in the Tengger Desert, northwestern China

A field experiment was conducted to investigate root distribution, biomass, and seasonal dynamics in a revegetated stand of Caragana korshinskii Kom. in the Tengger Desert. We used soil profile trenches, soil core sampling, and minirhizotron measurements to measure root dynamics. Results showed that the roots of C. korshinskii were distributed vertically in the uppermost portion of the soil profile, especially the coarse roots, which were concentrated in the upper 0.4 m. The horizontal distribution of the root length and weight of C. korshinskii coarse roots was concentrated within 0.6 and 0.4 m of the trunk, respectively. The lateral distribution of fine roots was more uniform than coarse roots. Total-root and fine-root biomasses were 662.4 +- 45.8 and 361.1 +- 10.3 g/square m, accounting for about two-thirds and one-third of the total plant biomass, respectively. Fine-root turnover is closely affected by soil water, and both of these parameters showed synchronously seasonal trends during the growing season in 2004 and 2005. The interaction between fine-root turnover and soil water resulted in the fine-root length densities and soil water content in the 0- to 1.0-m soil layer having similar trends, but the soil water peaks occurred before those of the fine-root length densities.