Improving the scale and precision of hypotheses to explain root foraging ability

Background: Numerous hypotheses have been proposed to explain the wide variation in the ability of plants to forage for resources by proliferating roots in soil nutrient patches. Comparative analyses have found little evidence to support many of these hypotheses, raising the question of what role resource-foraging ability plays in determining plant fitness and community structure. Scope: In the present viewpoint, we respond to Grime's (2007; Annals of Botany 99: 1017–1021) suggestion that we misinterpreted the scope of the scale–precision trade-off hypothesis, which states that there is a trade-off between the spatial scale over which plant species forage and the precision with which they are able to proliferate roots in resource patches. We use a meta-analysis of published foraging scale–precision correlations to demonstrate that there is no empirical support for the scale–precision trade-off hypothesis. Based on correlations between foraging precision and various plant morphological and ecophysiological traits, we found that foraging precision forms part of the ‘fast’ suite of plant traits related to rapid growth rates and resource uptake rates. Conclusions: We suggest there is a need not only to examine correlations between foraging precision and other plant traits, but to expand our notion of what traits might be important in determining the resource-foraging ability of plants. By placing foraging ability in the broader context of plant traits and resource economy strategies, it will be possible to develop a new and empirically supported framework to understand how plasticity in resource uptake and allocation affect plant fitness and community structure