Coexistence structural characteristics and phenotypic variation process of root and soil in a heterogeneous environment after plantation construction

Abstract Aims Little information is available on the physical interactions between the root system and soil structure in a heterogeneous environment. In this study, we aim to showed how to construct the coexistence structure of the root and soil in a heterogeneous field environment. Methods Computerized tomography (CT) scanning can be used to construct the structure of coexistence and various topological structure parameters of roots, pores, and aggregates in a controllable manner. Results A denser root-soil system network structure (such as the length, volume, surface area and diameter of root-macropore system, and the sphericity and girth of aggregates) formed in the surface soil as the plantation age increased. In particular, there was connectedness to find a stronger thick root, but there was a decrease in the number of clusters of fine roots. In a heterogeneous environment, the influence of macropore and aggregate on the root variable shows a weak positive relationship, in the inverse relationship, the root variable has a significant positive impact on the maropore and aggregate. In addition, the degree of aggregate has a significant positive effect on the porosity. Conclusions The introduction of shrubs led to the increase of coarse roots but the decrease of fine roots in desert steppe, indicating that the introduction of shrubs was not conducive to herb recovery.The root system has a direct positive influence on the soil pores, and also has an indirect positive influence on the soil pores by promoting the development of aggregates.