Study
Root traits as drivers of plant and ecosystem functioning: current understanding, pitfalls and future research needs
Freschet, G. T.; Roumet, C.; Comas, L. H.; Weemstra, M.; Bengough, A. G.; Rewald, B.; Bardgett, R. D.; De Deyn, G. B.; Johnson, D.; Klimešová, J.
New Phytologist, 2021
A synthesis of what root traits — diameter, tissue density, branching, lifespan, exudation, mycorrhizal association — are known to do for the plant and for the ecosystem, and of where the field’s assumptions outrun its measurements.
- Studied in
- Tracheophyta
Root systems are far more functionally varied than the shoot traits used to classify plants would suggest, and the widely used framework of a single fast-to-slow economics axis does not describe roots well: thin roots and thick mycorrhizal-dependent roots represent genuinely different strategies rather than points on one line. Much of what is assumed about root function rests on measurements from a small number of species grown in pots.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Root traits drive plant and ecosystem functioning through several partly independent axes, and progress requires standardised measurement and far broader species coverage.
How NatureHQ reads it
Included because it is the current state of the field and because it says out loud how thin the evidence base is. Roots are the least observed major organ in botany for an entirely practical reason — looking at one destroys it — and that shows up as confident general statements resting on a handful of species in pots. It is also the reason NatureHQ separates what a root is measured to do from what root systems are assumed to do.
- A review rather than new measurement.
- Weighted towards herbaceous species and towards temperate systems, which is the same bias it identifies in the field.
- Identifies the standardisation problem without resolving it.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Published by: Wiley journalsPublished in a Wiley journal.
This reference was resolved automatically against Crossref on 2026-08-30.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-08-30.