3.1 Above- and belowground biomass allocation
There were significant differences in the SMF, RMF and R/S among the six
species (P <0.001, Figure 3). The average RMF was the
highest in M. sativa (46.5%), followed by L. chinensis(38.2%), S. grandis (36.3%), C. squarrosa (24.0%),S. viridis (3.7%) and C. glaucum (3.6%). The R/S were
ranked in the order M. sativa (0.92) > L.
chinensis (0.72) > S. grandis (0.64) >C. squarrosa (0.33) > S. viridis (0.04)
> C. glaucum (0.04). The shoot biomass was the
dominant fraction in the two annuals (S. viridis and C.
glaucum ), and there was a statistically insignificant difference
between them (P >0.05). In contrast, the SMFs of
perennials (M. sativa , L. chinensis , S. grandis andC. squarrosa ) were all significantly smaller than those of
annuals (P <0.001) but greater than their respective
RMFs. In addition, the perennial C3 plants (M.
sativa , L. chinensis and S. grandis ) tended to allocate
more biomass to roots than the perennial C4 plant
(C. squarrosa ) (Figure 3).