Root exudates amount to approximately 9% of global annual plant gross primary productivity. These chemically heterogeneous compounds are released into the soil where they contribute to forming the rhizosphere, the narrow zone around the roots that is directly influenced by root activity. In the rhizosphere, root exudates are involved in complex chemical, physical and biological processes – they influence the soil microbiome, affect the soil pH and alter soil physical properties, impacting plant water, carbon and nutrient relations. Despite their importance, sampling and measuring exudates remains challenging and key questions about their composition, persistence and function remain open.
This session aims to advance our knowledge on the role of root exudation across all terrestrial ecosystems. We invite contributions that study root exudation from a molecular to an ecosystem level. Among others, we especially welcome studies covering the following topics: novel methods in sampling and analyzing root exudation; deciphering how much carbon is exuded in diverse ecosystems from grasslands, agricultural systems to savannas or forests; environmental influences on root exudation amount and composition including nutrient and water availability or soil and air temperature; the role of exudates in mitigating biotic and abiotic stressors; the functional role of exudates in nutrient uptake; how do root exudates shape the soil microbiome; can exudates change soil physical properties; how stable are root exudates in the soil and how long do they persist in the soil environment; is there a tradeoff between root growth and root exudation; how do we model root exudation across spatial and temporal scales.
We encourage researchers across multiple disciplines and backgrounds to contribute to this session, including experimental manipulations, field observations and modelling from molecular to global scales. Collectively, insights from this session will help to improve our understanding of the role of root exudation in the global carbon cycle and their function in rhizosphere processes. This knowledge will help in improving predictions on soil carbon storage and plant responses to environmental stress which is crucial for developing effective strategies in sustainable land management and land conservation.
Eva Oburger