title: New nitrogen uptake strategy: specialized snow roots.
abstract: The evolution of plants has yielded a wealth of adaptations for the acquisition of key mineral nutrients. These include the structure, physiology and positioning of root systems. We report the discovery of specialized snow roots as a plant strategy to cope with the very short season for nutrient uptake and growth in alpine snow-beds, i.e. patches in the landscape that remain snow-covered well into the summer. We provide anatomical, chemical and experimental (15)N isotope tracking evidence that the Caucasian snow-bed plant Corydalis conorhiza forms extensive networks of specialized above-ground roots, which grow against gravity to acquire nitrogen directly from within snow packs. Snow roots capture nitrogen that would otherwise partly run off down-slope over a frozen surface, thereby helping to nourish these alpine ecosystems. Climate warming is changing and will change mountain snow regimes, while large-scale anthropogenic N deposition has increased snow N contents. These global changes are likely to impact on the distribution, abundance and functional significance of snow roots.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geobotany, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Onipchenko
authors.forename: Mikhail I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Makarov
authors.forename: Richard S P
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: van Logtestijn
authors.forename: Viktor B
authors.initials: VB
authors.lastname: Ivanov
authors.forename: Assem A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Akhmetzhanova
authors.forename: Dzhamal K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Tekeev
authors.forename: Anton A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ermak
authors.forename: Fatima S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Salpagarova
authors.forename: Anna D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Kozhevnikova
authors.forename: Johannes H C
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cornelissen
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D031311:Corydalis / Q000502:physiology*; D007553:Isotope Labeling; D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes / Q000378:metabolism; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development*; D012426:Russia; D012914:Snow
chemical_list: D009587:Nitrogen Isotopes