Biomass partitioning of plants under soil pollution stress.
Florian DelerueMathieu ScattolinOlivier AtteiaGregory J V CohenMichel FranceschiMichel J MenchPublished in: Communications biology (2022)
Polluted sites are ubiquitous worldwide but how plant partition their biomass between different organs in this context is unclear. Here, we identified three possible drivers of biomass partitioning in our controlled study along pollution gradients: plant size reduction (pollution effect) combined with allometric scaling between organs; early deficit in root surfaces (pollution effect) inducing a decreased water uptake; increased biomass allocation to roots to compensate for lower soil resource acquisition consistent with the optimal partitioning theory (plant response). A complementary meta-analysis showed variation in biomass partitioning across published studies, with grass and woody species having distinct modifications of their root: shoot ratio. However, the modelling of biomass partitioning drivers showed that single harvest experiments performed in previous studies prevent identifying the main drivers at stake. The proposed distinction between pollution effects and plant response will help to improve our knowledge of plant allocation strategies in the context of pollution.
Keyphrases
- heavy metals
- particulate matter
- risk assessment
- health risk assessment
- wastewater treatment
- human health
- anaerobic digestion
- systematic review
- water quality
- air pollution
- case control
- healthcare
- cell wall
- drinking water
- randomized controlled trial
- escherichia coli
- climate change
- heat stress
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- biofilm formation
- candida albicans