We are collaborating with the Brando Lab to explore how DNA barcoding of tree roots allow us to characterize the belowground niches of Amazonian trees and understand how rooting depth interacts with tree height and vessel resistance and mediates drought resistance.

For that, we are working in a Long Term Research in Environmental Biology (LTREB) site in the drier and hotter part of southeast Amazonia, the Tanguro Ranch. Through this project, we seek to a)  generate a database of rooting depth for individual tree species; b) test the hypothesis that species-specific rooting depth is negatively correlated with tree height and vessel resistance; c) investigate how the relationship between root depth and tree height correlates with species-specific mortality rates for the past 20 years; and d) explore if and how root depth reflect evolutionary legacies, and the extent to which contemporary evolutionary conditions allow us to predict root turnover below ground.

 

This grant was co-written with and supports research by Ph.D. candidate Caroline Flynn.