Sugarcane Root Production and Turnover Under Nitrogen Fertilization on Reunion Island

A two-year field experiment on Reunion Island quantified sugarcane root production and turnover across a full crop cycle, including plant crop and first ratoon. The study by Léa Chevalier from CIRAD examined how nitrogen fertilization modulates biomass allocation, fine root traits, and turnover. Sequential soil coring was used to monitor living root biomass, necromass, and fine root traits down to 50 cm depth every two months.

Use Cases

• Modeling belowground carbon inputs based on root production and turnover data.
• Analyzing the effect of nitrogen fertilization on biomass allocation in sugarcane.
• Studying fine root trait dynamics in a tropical crop over a two-year cycle.
• Comparing root system behavior between plant crop and first ratoon sugarcane.

Strengths

• Data covers a full two-year crop cycle, including plant and ratoon crops.
• Measurements include living root biomass, necromass, and fine root traits.
• Sampling was conducted down to 50 cm depth at two-month intervals.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

CIRAD Harvested Collection

Collection Method

Sequential soil coring from a two-year field experiment.

Time Range

Covers a full sugarcane crop cycle (two years).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-20 15:42:49; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Reunion Island