Exploring the advantages and disadvantages of different plant rooting structures to achieve different outcomes for the plan

Introduction

This project is about exploring the advantages and disadvantages of different plant rooting structures to achieve different outcome. The project will deal with determining the best plant rooting strategy for building maximum shoot biomass over a single wet season. In this case, the strategies that are being investigated are; soil depth, and soli water (Smith, Nicholas  Dukes, and Jeffrey, 2012). The hypothesis of this study is to investigate if there is significant difference in the mean biomass due to rooting strategies soil depth, and soil water, and if the change in the rooting strategies influences the cracking on the bedrock

Hypothesis

Null hypothesis: There is no significant difference in the mean biomass due to rooting strategies soil depth, and soil water

Alternative hypothesis: There are significant difference in the mean biomass due to rooting strategies soil depth, and soil water

In the recent studies indicate that there has been  establishment that the habitat specificity of many shallow soil endemics is related to degree of below ground specification that lead to the survival in the extreme habitants, and the adaptability to the deeper soil environments(Williams, Morlock and Feltner  2010).  This adaptation is specifically meant to the perennial crops that grow in very thin soil and very limited amount of water (Daniel, 2004). The evidence of this type of the characteristic is the fact that there is growing fact that in the dry season, water that is retained in the underground is important to meet the transpiration need for the plant growing in those areas. There are also great questions on the type of the roots traits that would be clearly showed the advantages and disadvantages in different environmental and climatic conditions. In this project, specialization in different rooting strategies will be examined to differentiate on their efficient in the root biomass and the crack

Methodology

This project is a tool for analysis for examining and exploring the rooting strategy for building maximum shoot biomass over a single wet season. In this project, a simulation study was conducted to investigate different strategies and their effect on the biomass and success in finding cracks. A stochastic model was applied with different parameters (Statistical Solutions, 2014). 100 simulations were conducted to evaluate the strategies. To change the rooting strategy, the values of the parameters are adjusted. The following table gives the parameter of the initial simulation and the final simulations. By holding all the other parameter constant, we investigate the change in biomass when the parameters water depth changes from 250 to 600, the soil water change from 0.1 to 0.07 known for sand case. In this project, a simulation study has been conducted to determine if there is any significant effect in the biomass of the roots when different rooting strategies are applies. In this case, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to determine if there is any significant difference in the rooting strategies.

Parameters	Initial	Final
Soil depth	250	600
water	0.1	0.7

Results

Initial results when the soil depth is 250, the soil water level is 0.1

Figure 1                                               figure 2                                    figure 3

From figure 1, Biomass is equal to 0.31003, and the crack was not found ( false). Figure 2 indicate that Biomass is equal to 0.6566557 and the crack was found (true). Figure 3 also indicate that Biomass is equal to 0.50408 while there was no crack found (false).

The simulation result after change on parameters

figure 4                                                            figure 5                                    Figure 6

From the changed parameters, figure 4 indicates that the biomass is equal to 0.5495238 while there was no crack found (false). Figure 5 indicate that the biomass is equal to 0.40457 while there was no crack found (false). Figure 6 indicate that the biomass is equal to 031003 while there was no crack found (false).

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

The Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results on the biomass as the dependent variable with rooting strategies as the factors or independent variables.

In this section, the dependent variable is the biomass while the dependent variables are the rooting strategies applied. The analysis of variance helps to determine if there is any significant difference in the mean biomass for different rooting strategies. From the analysis of variance, it can be observed that the F (4, 175, 0.05) = 1.69 with p- value of 0.000. This implies that there is significant different in the mean biomass caused by different rooting strategies. This is because the value of the p – value is equal to 0.000 which is less than the 0. 05 level of confidence. From the Analysis of variance, it can be observed that the value of coefficient of determination is equal to 0.8964 which implies that analysis of the one way model on the rooting strategies can account for 89.64% of the errors in the analysis. The analysis of variance model also has a standard deviation of 0.07623.

Discussion

From the results obtained, the effect of the soil depth indicate that as the soil depth increases, the branching of the roots from the stem increases, while as the depth of the soil decreases, the branching of the roots decreases. The soil depth also affects the biomass of the roots. As the depth of the soil in increasing, the biomass of the roots is decreasing, while as the depth of the soil decreases, the biomass of the soil increases.

The results, the other factor that affects the rooting strategy is the water holding capacity of the soil. From the results, as the water holding capacity reduces, the biomass of the roots decreases, this is because the amount of water retained in the soil is just enough to sustain the transpiration. Thus as the water holding capacity of the soil increases, the biomass of the roots increases. The water holding capacity of the soil affects the cracking of the bedrock by the roots. From the results obtained, it can be observed that the variation of angle of rotation is a factor that influences the biomass of the roots. This is because the more the number of roots branches the more the biomass. Additional variation of the rooting strategies is needed in the analysis to investigate how they affect the biomass and the cracking of the bedrock. This will help us investigate how does including a limited supply of available soil P in the top soil layers affect the optimal root strategy? There is no plasticity in the rooting strategies as currently implemented; while adding additional complexity, it would be very interesting to add phenotypic plasticity by allowing strategies to change depending on the current state of individual roots and their local environment, or of the plant as a whole, and then investigate the costs and benefits of such adaptive strategies relative to fixed ones. From this analysis, it can be concluded that the more the variation of the parameters of the rooting strategies to improve the biomass.

References

Daniel, W. W. (2004) Biostatistics: A Foundation for Analysis in the Health Sciences, 8^th Ed.

Wiley.

Smith, Nicholas G. & Dukes, Jeffrey S. (2012). Plant rooting stategies;. West Lafayette, USA: Global Change Biology.

“Statistical Solutions, LLC.” Power & Sample Size Calculator. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014.

Retrieved from http://www.statisticalsolutions.net/pss_calc.php

Williams VS, Morlock RJ, Feltner D.(2010) Psychometric evaluation of a visual analog scale for   the assessment of anxiety. Health Qual Life Outcomes.