{"id":1323,"date":"2009-06-12T10:01:37","date_gmt":"2009-06-12T14:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=1323"},"modified":"2009-06-12T10:01:37","modified_gmt":"2009-06-12T14:01:37","slug":"evolution-at-its-finest-plant-roots-in-snow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2009\/06\/12\/evolution-at-its-finest-plant-roots-in-snow\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution at its finest: Plant roots in snow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/data\/images\/ns\/cms\/dn17299\/dn17299-1_800.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright img-fluid\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px\" src=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/data\/images\/ns\/cms\/dn17299\/dn17299-1_800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"282\" height=\"211\"><\/a>Ecologists have discovered yet another astonishing way that plants defy all manner of physical obstacles to get what they need. Researchers have discovered alpine plant roots that grow upwards, against gravity, and out of the soil\u2026into the snow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.falw.vu.nl\/en\/research\/ecological-sciences\/systems-ecology\/staff\/dr-hans-cornelissen.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/a>A group of researchers centered at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vu.nl\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">VU University in Amsterdam<\/a> discovered the plant roots high in the mountains of southern Russia. The plant, <em>Corydalis conorhiza<\/em>, is in what\u2019s sometimes referred to as the fumewort family, and has relatives around the globe. This particular species, however, has a tough time finding the nutrients it needs because of a thick ice layer that covers the ground well into the summer, preventing nutrients from leaching into the soil from aboveground organic matter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"float: left;padding: 5px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.researchblogging.org\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.researchblogging.org\/public\/citation_icons\/rb2_large_gray.png\" alt=\"ResearchBlogging.org\" class=\"img-fluid\"><\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000\">Publishing online last week in the journal <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.interscience.wiley.com\/journal\/122440089\/abstract\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Ecology Letters<\/em><\/a>, the scientists say that<em> C. conorhiza<\/em> has evolved specialized roots that grow up through the soil, penetrate the ice layer and branch out in to the snow layer above. The roots then were thought to take up essential nutrients, such as nitrogen, directly from the snow.\u00a0 To confirm their hypothesis, the researchers added an isotope of nitrogen to the snow surrounding the plants; sure enough, days later, they discovered high signatures of that nitrogen isotope in <em>C. conorhiza<\/em>, but not in other nearby plant species. Said corresponding author <a href=\"http:\/\/www.falw.vu.nl\/en\/research\/ecological-sciences\/systems-ecology\/staff\/dr-hans-cornelissen.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hans Cornelissen<\/a> in a statement:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000\">\u201cThese roots help the plant to feed on nutrients in snow before the plant shoots appear above the surface in the growing season. This gives the plant an advance on other plant species, which can only take up nutrients through roots in the soil during the very short growing season.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">Read more in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn17299-unique-roots-let-plant-forage-in-the-snow.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Scientist article<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ecologists have discovered yet another astonishing way that plants defy all manner of physical obstacles to get what they need. Researchers have discovered alpine plant roots that grow upwards, against gravity, and out of the soil\u2026into the snow. A group of researchers centered at VU University in Amsterdam discovered the plant roots high in the mountains of southern Russia. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,2,88],"tags":[268,269,270],"class_list":["post-1323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecology-education","category-research","category-science-journalism","tag-alpine-ecology","tag-high-elevation","tag-roots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}