Table 2.
Mean belowground (rooting depth (D R), lateral spread (L R), shoot height (H S) and shoot width (W S)) extents across plant traits.
| Belowground extents (m) | Aboveground extents (m) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D R | L R | H S | W S | |||||
| Mean | SD and group | Mean | SD and group | Mean | SD and group | Mean | SD and group | |
| Growth form | ||||||||
| Forb | 1.02 | 1.04c | 0.51 | 0.51e | 0.36 | 0.34c | 0.34 | 0.37c |
| Grass | 1.14 | 0.93c | 0.55 | 0.94de | 0.55 | 0.53bc | 0.35 | 0.85c |
| Semi‐shrub | 1.42 | 1.2c | 1.07 | 1.37cd | 0.33 | 0.24c | 0.53 | 0.55c |
| Shrub | 2.36 | 2.85b | 3.33 | 3.46b | 1.47 | 1.5b | 1.48 | 1.68b |
| Succulent | 0.56 | 0.68c | 2.22 | 1.93bc | 0.61 | 0.64bc | 0.78 | 0.55bc |
| Tree | 3.64 | 7.69a | 7.04 | 7a | 8.07 | 9.12a | 3.25 | 4.42a |
| Lifespan | ||||||||
| Annual | 0.76 | 0.6b* | 0.4 | 0.59b | 0.54 | 0.59b | 0.32 | 0.46b |
| Perennial | 2.12 | 4.64a* | 2.05 | 3.93a | 2.06 | 5.14a | 0.92 | 2.07a |
| Tissue | ||||||||
| Herbaceous | 1.06 | 1b* | 0.52 | 0.66b | 0.42 | 0.41b | 0.34 | 0.55b |
| Woody | 2.88 | 6a* | 3.8 | 5.28a | 3.94 | 7.03a | 1.68 | 2.94a |
| Seed category | ||||||||
| Dicot | 2.24 | 5.04a | 1.93 | 3.89b | 1.47 | 4.04b | 0.89 | 1.72b |
| Gymnosperm | 1.92 | 3.74a | 5.57 | 4.76a | 8.63 | 9.49a | 2.56 | 5.35a |
| Monocot | 1.08 | 0.93b | 0.63 | 1.35c | 0.52 | 0.51c | 0.35 | 0.79c |
| Leaf longevity | ||||||||
| Deciduous | 2.96 | 5.5a | 5.67 | 6.27a | 4.48 | 5.71a | 2.6 | 3.06a |
| Evergreen | 3.1 | 6.95a | 3.06 | 4.59b | 4.74 | 8.64a | 1.41 | 3.28b |
| Leaf form | ||||||||
| Broadleaf | 3.59 | 7.43a | 4.71 | 6.01b | 4.12 | 7.12b | 2.08 | 2.86a |
| Needle‐leaf | 1.87 | 3.67b | 5.02 | 5.21b | 7.74 | 9.05a | 2.29 | 4.93a |
| Photosynthetic pathway | ||||||||
| C3 | 2.04 | 4.69a | 1.86 | 3.82a | 2.04 | 5.14a | 0.87 | 2.04a |
| C3–C4 | 1.13 | 0.63ab | 0.85 | 0.69a | 0.36 | 0.2b | 0.37 | 0.24a |
| C4 | 1.75 | 1.85ab | 1.37 | 2.65a | 0.74 | 0.73b | 0.71 | 1.29a |
| CAM | 0.61 | 0.71b | 2.57 | 2.43a | 0.64 | 0.63b | 0.76 | 0.52a |
CAM, Crassulacean acid metabolism.
*
These are the only two categories where rooting extents relative to aboveground volume showed significant differences between groups, where both annual and herbaceous plants had D R/V S values greater than perennial and woody plants, therefore differing from the pattern shown by D R. D R and L R relative to shoot volume (V S) did not differ across all other classifications. The lowercase letters represent significant differences between groups via Tukey’s honest significance difference tests.