Spatiotemporal Root-Trait Plasticity Underpins Almond Yield Stability and Enhanced Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiency Under Prolonged Fertigation Reduction

The root system provides the interface between the plant and the soil that is responsible for water and nutrient uptake and transport. We hypothesized that almond trees in the commercial production environment could adjust their root acquisitive traits with distance vertically and horizontally from driplines as adaptive responses to within-orchard reductions in irrigation and nitrogen inputs. We compared the responses of root acquisitive traits under four years of treatments ranging from +W+N (15 ML ha⁻¹ water and 300 kg ha⁻¹ nitrogen per season) to −W−N (10.5 ML ha⁻¹ water and 160 kg ha⁻¹ nitrogen per season, with −W involving a 30% reduction in irrigation and −N involving a 46% reduction in nitrogen). Roots (<3 mm) were sampled through soil coring in the winters of 2017, 2018, and 2019. Root sampling was conducted along the vertical gradient and along the horizonal gradient (0 cm, 80 cm, and 240 cm from the dripline). Four years of treatments highlighted that the data variation was driven mainly by the difference between the +W and −W treatments (along PC1). Further, the difference between −W−N (combined resource reduction) and the other three treatments (+W+N, +W−N, and −W+N) contributed to the data variation (along PC2). Also, the temporal dynamics of treatment effects over 2017, 2018, and 2019 suggested a temporally strengthened +W−N effect to increase root biomass, average root diameter, specific root surface area (SRA), and specific root length (SRL) at deeper soil depths and at greater soil distances from driplines. These findings on the spatial and temporal plasticity of traits representing root resource acquisition capabilities highlighted the important role of root systems in maintaining crop productivity under reduced irrigation and nitrogen inputs.