PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Bergmann, Joana
AU  - Weigelt, Alexandra
AU  - van der Plas, Fons
AU  - Laughlin, Daniel C.
AU  - Kuyper, Thom W.
AU  - Guerrero-Ramirez, Nathaly
AU  - Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar J.
AU  - Bruelheide, Helge
AU  - Freschet, Grégoire T.
AU  - Iversen, Colleen M.
AU  - Kattge, Jens
AU  - McCormack, M. Luke
AU  - Meier, Ina C.
AU  - Rillig, Matthias C.
AU  - Roumet, Catherine
AU  - Semchenko, Marina
AU  - Sweeney, Christopher J.
AU  - van Ruijven, Jasper
AU  - York, Larry M.
AU  - Mommer, Liesje
TI  - The fungal collaboration gradient dominates the root economics space in plants
AID  - 10.1126/sciadv.aba3756
DP  - 2020 Jul 01
TA  - Science Advances
PG  - eaba3756
VI  - 6
IP  - 27
4099  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/27/eaba3756.short
4100  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/27/eaba3756.full
SO  - Sci Adv2020 Jul 01; 6
AB  - Plant economics run on carbon and nutrients instead of money. Leaf strategies aboveground span an economic spectrum from “live fast and die young” to “slow and steady,” but the economy defined by root strategies belowground remains unclear. Here, we take a holistic view of the belowground economy and show that root-mycorrhizal collaboration can short circuit a one-dimensional economic spectrum, providing an entire space of economic possibilities. Root trait data from 1810 species across the globe confirm a classical fast-slow “conservation” gradient but show that most variation is explained by an orthogonal “collaboration” gradient, ranging from “do-it-yourself” resource uptake to “outsourcing” of resource uptake to mycorrhizal fungi. This broadened “root economics space” provides a solid foundation for predictive understanding of belowground responses to changing environmental conditions.