Simulating growth and root-shoot partitioning in prairie grasses under elevated atmospheric CO2 and water stress

Abstract

We constructed a model simulating growth, shoot-root partitioning, plant nitrogen (N) concentration and total non-structural carbohydrates in perennial grasses. Carbon (C) allocation was based on the concept of a functional balance between root and shoot growth, which responded to variable plant C and N supplies. Interactions between the plant and environment were made explicit by way of variables for soil water and soil inorganic N. The model was fitted to data on the growth of two species of perennial grass subjected to elevated atmospheric CO2 and water stress treatments. The model exhibited complex feedbacks between plant and environment, and the indirect effects of CO2 and water treatments on soil water and soil inorganic N supplies were important in interpreting observed plant responses. Growth was surprisingly insensitive to shoot-root partitioning in the model, apparently because of the limited soil N supply, which weakened the expected positive relationship between root growth and total N uptake. Alternative models for the regulation of allocation between shoots and roots were objectively compared by using optimization to find the least squares fit of each model to the data. Regulation by various combinations of C and N uptake rates, C and N substrate concentrations, and shoot and root biomass gave nearly equivalent fits to the data, apparently because these variables were correlated with each other. A partitioning function that maximized growth predicted too high a root to shoot ratio, suggesting that partitioning did not serve to maximize growth under the conditions of the experiment.