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- Smarter Targeting of Erosion Control (STEC) News
Swiss students down under (in so many ways)
The team dug, pulled and broke roots, and measured root distribution in 22-year old poplar trees growing in a Nelder trial on the farm. After an initial foray into digging a 1m deep trench around the first tree a digger was brought in to make it easier for them. They counted over 10,000 individual roots from that first tree at 4 different radii from the stem. Most roots were located in the upper 30cm of soil. They also completed 45 pull-out tests on roots up to about 40 mm in diameter which was at the limit of the load cell and the pullout apparatus that Jagath Ekanayake constructed several years ago. The resulting root diameter-force curve is significantly greater than that for Pinus radiata (data we collected with the help of students from University of Sassari in Sardinia a few years ago that is in the process of being published).