Root Biology Lab at
The Morton Arboretum

The Landscape Below Ground

Gary Watson organized the Landscape Below Ground IV conference which was held in Lisle, IL, USA in the fall of 2018. The proceedings from the "LBG IV" is now available through the International Society of Arboriculture.  Keep your eyes and ears open, LBG V may be just around the corner.

Recent Publications

Freschet G, C Roumet, LH Comas, M Weemstra, AG Bengough, B Rewald, RD Bardgett, GB De Deyn, D Johnson, J Klimešová, M Lukac, ML McCormack, IC Meier, L Pagès, H Poorter, I Prieto, N Wurzburger, M Zadworny, A Bagniewska‐Zadworna, EB Blancaflor, I Brunner, A Gessler, SE Hobbie, CM Iversen, L Mommer, C Picon‐Cochard, JA Postma, L Rose, P Ryser, M Scherer‐Lorenzen, NA Soudzilovskaia, T Sun, OJ Valverde‐Barrantes, A Weigelt, LM York, A Stokes. Root traits as drivers of plant and ecosystem functioning: current understanding, pitfalls and future research needs. New Phytologist (2021).

McCormack ML*, MA Kaproth*, E Carlson, J Cavender-Bares, PG Kennedy. Fine-root morphology and architecture are interconnected among root orders but are unrelated to climate of origin across a diverse suite of oak species. New Phytologist, 228: 1824-1834 (2020). 

Li FL, ML McCormack, X Liu, H Hu, DF Feng, WK Bao. Vertical fine-root distributions in five subalpine forest types shifts with soil properties across environmental gradients. Plant and Soil 456: 129-143 (2020).

Guerrero-Ramirez N, Mommer L, Freschet GT, Iversen CM, McCormack ML, Kattge J, Poorter H, van der Plas F, Bergmann J, Kuyper TW, ... A Weigelt. Global Root Traits (GRooT) Database. Global Ecology and Biogeography 30: 25-37 (2020).

Bergmann J, A Weigelt, F van der Plas, DC Laughlin, TW Kuyper, N Guerrero-Rameriz, OJ Valverde-Barrantes, H Bruelheide, GT Freschet, CM Iversen, J Kattge, ML McCormack, IC Meier, MC Rillig, C Roumet, M Semchenko, CJ Sweeney, J van Ruijven, LM York, L Mommer, The fungal collaboration gradient dominates the root economics space in plants. Science Advances, 6: eaba3756 (2020).
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G Watson and A Hewitt. Large trees establish more rapidly when transplanted bare root. International Journal of Urban Forestry, 1-10 (2020).

G Watson and A Hewitt. Changes in Tree Root Architecture Resulting from Field Nursery Production Practices. Journal of Environmental Horticulture, 38: 22-28 (2020).

Addo-Danso S, C Defrenne, C Prescott, ML McCormack, I Ostonen, A Addo-Danso, E Foli, K Borden, I Marney. Fine-root morphological trait variation in tropical forest ecosystems: an evidence synthesis. Plant Ecology, 221: 1-13 (2020).

McCormack ML and CM Iversen. Physical and functional constraints on viable belowground acquisition strategies. Frontiers in Plant Science, 10: 1-12 (2019).

Soudzilovskaia N, Peter M van Bodegom, C Terrer, M van’t Zelfde, I McCallum, ML McCormack, JB Fisher, M Brundrett, NC de Sá, L Tedersoo. Global mycorrhizal plants distribution linked to terrestrial carbon stocks. Nature Communications, 10: 5077 (2019).

Defrenne CE, ML McCormack, SD Addo-Danso, SW Simard. Intraspecific fine-root trait-environment relationships across interior Douglas-fir forests of western Canada. Plants, 8: 199 (2019).

See CR, ML McCormack, SE Hobbie, H Flores-Moreno, WL Silver, PG Kennedy. Global patterns in fine-root decomposition: climate, chemistry, mycorrhizal association and woodiness. Ecology Letters, 22: 946-953 (2019).