A global map of root biomass across the world's forests

As a key component of the Earth system, roots play a key role in linking Earth's lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. Here we combine 10 307 field measurements of forest root biomass worldwide with global observations of forest structure, climatic conditions, topography, land management and soil characteristics to derive a spatially explicit global high-resolution (similar to 1 km) root biomass dataset, including fine and coarse roots. In total, 142 +/- 25 (95% CI) Pg of live dry-matter biomass is stored belowground, representing a global average root : shoot biomass ratio of 0.25 +/- 0.10. Earlier studies (Jackson et al., 1997; Robinson, 2007; Saugier et al., 2001) are 44%-226% larger than our estimations of the total root biomass in tropical, temperate and boreal forests. The total global forest root biomass from a recent estimate (Spawn et al., 2020) is 24% larger than this study. The smaller estimation from this study is attributable to the updated forest area, spatially explicit aboveground biomass density used to predict the patterns of root biomass, new root measurements and the upscaling methodology. We show specifically that the root shoot allometry is one underlying driver that has led to methodological overestimation of root biomass in previous estimations.

Automated summary

Roots play a key role in linking different parts of the Earth system, and global research on root biomass suggests that previous estimations may have overestimated the amount of root biomass, while this study used a more accurate method for estimation.