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A depth-controlled tracer technique measures vertical, horizontal and temporal patterns of water use by trees and grasses in a subtropical savanna

Literature Reference
Peer Reviewed Literature
Authors

Kulmatiski, A., Beard, K.H., Verweig, R.J.T., February, E.C.

Abstract
  • As described in the two-layer hypothesis, woody plants are often assumed to use deep soils to avoid competition with grasses. Yet the direct measurements of root activity needed to test this hypothesis are rare.
  • Here, we injected deuterated water into four soil depths, at four times of year, to measure the vertical and horizontal location of water uptake by trees and grasses in a mesic savanna in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
  • Trees absorbed 24, 59, 14 and 4% of tracer from the 5, 20, 50, and 120 cm depths, respectively, while grasses absorbed 61, 29, 9 and 0.3% of tracer from the same depths. Only 44% of root mass was in the top 20 cm. Trees absorbed tracer under and beyond their crowns, while 98% of tracer absorbed by grasses came from directly under the stem.
  • Trees and grasses partitioned soil resources (20 vs 5 cm), but this partitioning did not reflect, as suggested by the two-layer hypothesis, the ability of trees to access deep soil water that was unavailable to grasses. Because root mass was a poor indicator of root activity, our results highlight the importance of precise root activity measurements.