Plant Soil Environ., 2008, 54(12):509-519 | DOI: 10.17221/429-PSE

Impact of soil compaction heterogeneity and moisture on maize (Zea mays L.) root and shoot development

B. Konôpka1,2, L. Pagès3, C. Doussan4
1 Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Forest Research Institute Zvolen, National Forest Centre, Zvolen, Slovak Republic
2 Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Plants and Horticultural Systems Unit, INRA Research Centre of Avignon, Avignon, France
4 Mediterranean Environment and Modeling of Agro-Hydrosystems Unit, INRA Research Centre of Avignon, Avignon, France

Soil compaction heterogeneity and water content are supposed to be decisive factors influencing plant growth. Our experiment focused on simulation of two soil moisture levels (0.16 and 0.19 g/g) plus two levels of clod proportion (30 and 60% volume) and their effects on root and leaf variables of maize (Zea mays L.). We studied number of primary and lateral roots as well as primary root length at the particular soil depths. Statistical tests showed that the decrease rate of the number of roots versus depth was significantly affected by the two studied factors (P < 0.01). Soil moisture and clod occurrence, interactively, affected leaf biomass (P = 0.02). Presence of clods modified root morphological features. Particularly, the diameter of primary roots in the clods was significantly higher than of those grown in fine soil (P < 0.01). For primary roots, which penetrated clods, branching density decreased considerably for the root segments located just after the clods (P = 0.01). Regarding their avoidance to clods and tortuosity, large differences were found between primary roots grown in the contrasting soil environments.

Keywords: clod proportion; root distribution; root morphology alteration; water kontent

Published: December 31, 2008  Show citation

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Konôpka B, Pagès L, Doussan C. Impact of soil compaction heterogeneity and moisture on maize (Zea mays L.) root and shoot development. Plant Soil Environ. 2008;54(12):509-519. doi: 10.17221/429-PSE.
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