Ecological Archives C006-029-A1

Frances C. O'Donnell, Kelly K. Caylor, Abinash Bhattachan, Kebonye Dintwe, and Gregory S. Okin. 2015. A quantitative description of the interspecies diversity of belowground structure in savanna woody plants. Ecosphere 6:154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/es14-00310.1

Appendix A. Conversion of wet to dry biomass.

During the 2009 field campaign, samples of root, stem, and branch pieces of each species, with the exception of Ochna pulchra representing a range of diameters and lengths were collected and the wet masses determined in the field. The samples were oven dried for 24 hours at 60˚C and massed to determine the ratio of wet to dry biomass. Bhattachan et al. (2012) present a detailed analysis of the factors affecting the ratio of wet mass to dry mass for the set of samples used here, finding that aboveground and belowground tissues had significantly different ratios, and that there were significant inter-species differences in the ratio for belowground biomass. The ratios used to convert wet mass to dry mass are given in Table (A1). Averages of all aboveground and all belowground pieces measured were used as conversion factors for O. pulchra, because individuals of this species were not excavated during the 2009 campaign.

Table A1. Ratio of wet and dry biomass for the aboveground (shoot) and belowground (root) components of the excavated species.

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