Getting to the root of tree neighbourhoods: hectare-scale root zones of a neotropical fig

Abstract

Sessile organisms interact locally on the scale of their body sizes, and one of the great advances in population and community ecology is the use of individual-based models to examine species interactions (Biondini 2001, Bolker & Pacala 1999, Pacala & Deutschman 1995, Pacala & Silander 1985, 1987; Silander & Pacala 1985). Canopies are often taken as a proxy for body size in the plant literature, even though roots can make up substantial amounts of a plant's biomass, have productivity that equals or exceeds the above-ground parts, and are critical in both competition and mutualisms involving nutrient capture and water balance (Biondini 2001, Casper & Jackson 1997, Casper et al. 2003, Rajaniemi & Reynolds 2004, Robinson 2004). Root zones, however, are seldom incorporated in plant ecological studies because they are exceptionally difficult to measure, and the importance of intra- and interspecific root interactions is little known (Schenk & Jackson 2002).