[A little cartoon story in 1, 2 and 3 dimensions – inspired by Edwin Abbott’s novella ‘Flatland’ – exploring how perspective shapes what we can see and know.] You and I are encased in time and space. The extents of what we can see and know are controlled by this fact. This theme was explored …
Link to paper CT scanning has become an important way of seeing how plant roots grow in soils. If we can see the structure of roots and surrounding soil without destroying the system we are looking at, we can learn a lot about processes which might help us to improve agriculture. Unfortunately, getting information out …
Link to paper We review the recent progress in the use of image based modelling to describe water dynamics in the rhizosphere. In addition, we describe traditional modelling and experimental methods, and how images obtained from X-ray Computed Tomography can be used in combination with direct pore-scale modelling to answer questions on water movement in the rhizosphere. The …
Link to paper Root hairs are important sites for nutrient uptake, especially in P limiting conditions. Here we provide first insights into root hair development for the diverse root types of rice grown under different conditions, and show the first in situ images of rice root hairs in intact soil. Roots of plants grown in upland fields …
Link to paper Plant-soil interaction is central to human food production and ecosystem function. Thus, it is essential to not only understand, but also to develop predictive mathematical models which can be used to assess how climate and soil management practices will affect these interactions. In this paper we review the current developments in structural …
Link to paper In this paper, we provide direct evidence of the importance of root hairs on pore structure development at the root–soil interface during the early stage of crop establishment. This was achieved by use of high‐resolution (c. 5 μm) synchrotron radiation computed tomography (SRCT) to visualise both the structure of root hairs and the …
Link to paper Root hairs are known to be highly important for uptake of sparingly soluble nutrients, particularly in nutrient deficient soils. Development of increasingly sophisticated mathematical models has allowed uptake characteristics to be quantified. However, modelling has been constrained by a lack of methods for imaging live root hairs growing in real soils. We …
Link to paper The rhizosphere is a zone of fundamental importance for understanding the dynamics of nutrient acquisition by plant roots. The canonical difficulty of experimentally investigating the rhizosphere led long ago to the adoption of mathematical models, the most sophisticated of which now incorporate explicit representations of root hairs and rhizosphere soil. Mathematical upscaling …
Link to paper This study applied time lapse (four-dimensional) synchrotron X-ray computed tomography to observe micro-scale interactions between plant roots and soil. Functionally contrasting maize root tips were repeatedly imaged during ingress into soil columns of varying water content and compaction. This yielded sequences of three-dimensional densiometric data, representing time-resolved geometric soil and root configurations …
Link to paper The mechanical impedance of soils inhibits the growth of plant roots, often being the most significant physical limitation to root system development. Non-invasive imaging techniques have recently been used to investigate the development of root system architecture over time, but the relationship with soil deformation is usually neglected. Correlative mapping approaches parameterised using 2D and 3D …
