NDLI: A method to separate plant roots from soil and analyze root surface area

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Benjamin, J. G. Nielsen, D. C.
Copyright Year	2004
Abstract	Analysis of the effects of soil management practices on crop production requires knowledge of these effects on plant roots. Much time is required to wash plant roots from soil and separate the living plant roots from organic debris and previous years’ roots. We developed a root washer that can accommodate relatively large soil samples for washing. The root washer has a rotary design and will accommodate up to 24 samples (100 mm diam. by 240 mm long) at one time. We used a flat-bed scanner to digitize an image of the roots from each sample and used a grid system with commercially-available image analysis software to analyze each sample for root surface area. Sensitivity analysis and subsequent comparisons of ‘dirty’ samples containing the roots and all the organic debris contained in the sample and ‘clean’ samples where the organic debris was manually removed from each sample showed that up to 15% of the projected image could be coveredwith debris without affecting accuracy and precision of root surface area measurements. Samples containing a large amount of debris may need to be partitioned into more than one scanning tray to allow accurate measurements of the root surface area. Sample processing time was reduced from 20 h, when hand separation of roots from debris was used, to about 0.5 h, when analyzing the image from an uncleaned sample. The method minimizes the need for preprocessing steps such as dying the roots to get better image contrast for image analysis. Some information, such as root length, root diameter classes and root weights, is not obtained when using this technique. Root length measurements, if needed, could be made by hand on the digital images. Root weight measurement would require sample cleaning and the advantage of less processing time per sample with this method would be lost. The significance of the tradeoff between information not obtained using this technique and the ability to process a greater number of samples with the time and personnel resources available must be determined by the individual researcher and research objectives.
Starting Page	225
Ending Page	234
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	0032079X
Journal	Plant and Soil
Volume Number	267
Issue Number	1-2
e-ISSN	15735036
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2004-01-01
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	chickpea elutriation pea root surface area soil management Plant Sciences Ecology Plant Physiology Soil Science & Conservation
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Soil Science Plant Science

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Morphological changes in the apex of pea roots during and after recovery from aluminium treatment

A high-throughput method to quantify root hair area in digital images taken in situ

A Method to Estimate Practical Radial Oxygen Loss of Wetland Plant Roots

Detection frequency of Pinus thunbergii roots by ground-penetrating radar is related to root biomass

Root growth in biopores—evaluation with in situ endoscopy

Intraspecific variation in morphological traits of root branch orders in Chamaecyparis obtusa

Root Physiology – from Gene to Function : Preface

A randomization method for efficiently and accurately processing fine roots, and separating them from debris, in the laboratory

Effects of Soil Structure on Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Root Development According to Sowing Date and Cultivar

A method to separate plant roots from soil and analyze root surface area

Similar Documents

Morphological changes in the apex of pea roots during and after recovery from aluminium treatment

A high-throughput method to quantify root hair area in digital images taken in situ

A Method to Estimate Practical Radial Oxygen Loss of Wetland Plant Roots

Detection frequency of Pinus thunbergii roots by ground-penetrating radar is related to root biomass

Root growth in biopores—evaluation with in situ endoscopy

Intraspecific variation in morphological traits of root branch orders in Chamaecyparis obtusa

Root Physiology – from Gene to Function : Preface

A randomization method for efficiently and accurately processing fine roots, and separating them from debris, in the laboratory

Effects of Soil Structure on Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Root Development According to Sowing Date and Cultivar

A method to separate plant roots from soil and analyze root surface area