Fine root

nutrients, water) and/or resource transport, making them functionally most analogous to the leaves and twigs in a plant's shoot system.

[2][3] Consequently, fine roots are studied to characterize the resource acquisition strategies and competitive ability of plant species.

Fine roots are often associated with symbiotic fungi and play a role in many ecosystem processes like nutrient cycles and soil reinforcement.

[5] As they age and develop, their function shifts from primarily acquiring soil resources to transporting materials to other parts of the plant body.

[7] Certain characteristics of fine-root growth and physiology are highly plastic, however, allowing a plant's roots to respond to the nature of the local soil environment.

[8] In multiple ecosystem types and forest stand ages, fine-root biomass has been found to decrease with increasing soil depth.

[1] This size-based definition is arbitrary, as it does not clearly or logically define fine roots based on anatomy, morphology, physiology, and/or function.

[14] In trees, fine roots are generally exclusively or dominantly colonized by a single mycorrhizal type, either arbuscular mycorrhizae or ectomycorrhizae.

A plant's ability to compete, and strategy for competition, can be determined by examining the traits, abundance, distribution, and functions of fine roots and their associated mycorrhizas.

[1] Fine roots also release exudates, including labile carbon, during life processes and turnover.

[1] In forest carbon and nutrient cycles, the formation, death, and decomposition of fine roots can account for 20-80% of total net primary production.