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Rainfall reduction impacts rhizosphere biogeochemistry in eucalypts grown in a deep Ferralsol in Brazil

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Abstract

Background and aims

Comparing root functioning under contrasting rainfall regimes can help assessing the capacity of plant species to cope with more intense and frequent drought predicted under climate change context. While the awareness of the need to study the whole root system is growing, most of the studies of root functioning through rhizosphere analyses have been restricted to the topsoil. Our study aimed to assess whether the depth in the soil and the rainfall amount affect root functioning, and notably the fate of nutrients within the rhizosphere.

Methods

We compared pH and nutrient availability within the rhizosphere and bulk soil along a 4-m deep soil profile in a 5-year-old eucalypt (Eucalyptus grandis) plantation under undisturbed and reduced rainfall treatments.

Results

The exchangeable K concentration and the pH of the bulk soil were not influenced by the reduced rainfall treatment. By contrast, the H3O+ concentration in the rhizosphere was significantly greater than that of the bulk soil, only in the reduced rainfall plot. The concentrations of exchangeable K in the rhizosphere were significantly larger than those of the bulk soil in both treatments but this difference was higher in the reduced rainfall plot, notably below the depth of 2 m. Both exchangeable K and H3O+ concentration significantly increased within the rhizosphere in the reduced rainfall treatment at soil depth down to 4 m.

Conclusions

The amount of K brought to the roots by mass flow was estimated and could not explain the observed increase in exchangeable K concentration within the rhizosphere. A more likely explanation was root-induced weathering of K-bearing minerals, partly related to enhanced rhizosphere acidification. Our results demonstrate that root functioning can be considerably altered as a response to drought down to large depths.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the staff at the Itatinga Experimental Station (ESALQ-USP) as well as Eder Araujo da Silva and Floragro (www.floragroapoio.com.br) for their technical support. This project was funded by the University of São Paulo, the Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (MACACC project ANR-13-AGRO-0005, Viabilité et Adaptation des Ecosystèmes Productifs, Territoires et Ressources face aux Changements Globaux AGROBIOSPHERE 2013 program), USP-COFECUB (Project 2011–25), FAPESP (grant number 2013/25998-4) and AGREENIUM (Plantrotem project). This site belongs to the SOERE F-ORE-T, which is supported annually by Ecofor, Allenvi and the French national research infrastructure ANAEE-F (http://www.anaee-france.fr/fr/).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIRAD, UMR Eco&Sols, 2 Place Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France

    Céline Pradier, Jean-Paul Laclau, Jean-Pierre Bouillet & Christophe Jourdan

  2. INRA, UMR Eco&Sols, 2 Place Viala, 34060, Montpellier, France

    Philippe Hinsinger

  3. FCA, UNESP, CEP 18610-307, Botucatu, SP, Brazil

    Irae Amaral Guerrini

  4. LCF, ESALQ, CEP 13400-970, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    José Leonardo Moraes Gonçalves

  5. CENA, ESALQ, CEP 13400-970, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Verónica Asensio & Cassio H. Abreu-Junior

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  1. Céline Pradier
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  2. Philippe Hinsinger
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  3. Jean-Paul Laclau
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  4. Jean-Pierre Bouillet
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Correspondence to Christophe Jourdan.

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Fig. S1

Volumetric soil water content (SWC) in the + W (a) and –W (b) treatments between topsoil and the depth of 4 m, from March 2015 to October 2015. The arrows indicate the collection period. (JPG 67 kb)

Fig. S2

Soil pseudo-total K concentration of the bulk soil along the soil profile for both treatments (+W = full symbol; –W = open symbol) upon sampling time, B stands for bulk soil. (JPG 18 kb)

Table S1

Circumference and aboveground biomass of the trees in the three blocks for –W and + W treatments. Data were collected in April 2015. Significant treatment effect were found on circumference (p < 0.01) and aboveground biomass (p < 0.01) but not on block. The study was made in the block 3 (bold values). (DOCX 26 kb)

Table S2

Concentrations (mg kg- 1) obtained for the available Ca and Mg in the bulk soil (Bulk) and in the rhizosphere (Rhizo) in the + W and –W treatments for the 4 repetitions (Rep). The limit of detection for Ca was 1.12 mg kg- 1 and 0.56 mg kg- 1 for Mg. Hence, only the values above the determination threshold are meaningful (2.24 mg kg- 1 for Ca and 1.12 mg kg- 1 for Mg). Values below the determination threshold were indicated by a hyphen (DOCX 28 kb)

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Pradier, C., Hinsinger, P., Laclau, JP. et al. Rainfall reduction impacts rhizosphere biogeochemistry in eucalypts grown in a deep Ferralsol in Brazil. Plant Soil 414, 339–354 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-016-3107-7

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