Dresden 2014 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 41: Poster - Pattern/ Nonlinear Dyn./ Fluids/ Granular/ Critical Phen.
DY 41.33: Poster
Donnerstag, 3. April 2014, 17:00–19:00, P3
Plant roots growing in granular media: intelligent penetrators? — •Caroline Bauer1,4, Rebecca Liese2, Ina Christin Meier2, Kai Huang3, and Matthias Schröter1 — 1Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation, Göttingen — 2Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften, Universität Göttingen — 3Experimentalphysik V, Universität Bayreuth — 4Institut für Experimentelle Physik, Universität Magdeburg
A root growing in the soil viewed from a granular physics perspective is a penetration experiment, where the tip of the root exerts shear stress on the granular medium at its front. Depending on its initial packing fraction, disordered granular matter subjected to shear either compacts (low packing fraction), dilates (high packing fraction) or does not change its packing fraction (dilatancy onset). The differences of root growth to a classical penetration experiment are a certain flexibility of the root and, more importantly, the involvement of a living organism that underwent an evolutionary process.
Thus the question we want to address is the following: Do roots grow in a different way when they encounter dense vs. loose granular material, and if so, does the transition happen at the point of dilatancy onset? To answer this question we plant seeds of Sinapis alba L. in a cell filled with a monodisperse granular aggregate. They are grown in a climate chamber where they are kept moist continuously with a modified Hoagland's solution. The growth of the roots and the changes in the granulate are monitored by regular scans with an X-ray tomograph.