The root system architecture (RSA), being a key characteristic of the root economic spectrum, describes the spatial arrangement and positioning of roots that determines the plant's exploration of water and nutrients in the soil. Still, it remains poorly understood how the RSA of woody plants responds to the demand for water and nutrients in different soil environments and how the uptake of these resources is optimized. Here we selected single-species plantations of Cupressus funebris and determined their topological index (TI), revised topological index (qa and qb), root link length (RLL), root branching rate (Rb and Ri:Ri+1), and in situ soil physicochemical properties to assess which root foraging strategies adopt in different soil environments among Guang'an City (GA), Suining City (SN), Mianyang City (MY), and Deyang City (DY) in China. We also tested the potential effects of different nutrients upon RSA according to its plastic phenotype. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that levels of soil nutrients were the highest at DY, followed by MY and SN, and lower at GA. A dichotomous branching pattern was observed for GA, SN, and MY, but a herringbone branching pattern for DY. The RLL was ranked as GA, > SN, > MY > DY. The Rb of GA, SN, and MY was significantly lower than that of DY (p < 0.05). Among the different city regions, values of R1/R2 were the largest in different regions and those of R4/R5 the smallest. The cross-sectional area of the root system did not differ between any two connected branch orders. The TI, qa, and RLL were significantly and negatively correlated with soil's water content, porosity, total nitrogen, total potassium, available nitrogen, and available phosphorus (p < 0.05), whereas they all had significant, positive relationships with soil temperature (p < 0.05). The Rb was significantly and positively correlated with total potassium in soil (p < 0.05). Redundancy analysis showed that total potassium was the main factor driving variation in RSA. Our results emphasize that the RSA is capable of corresponding plastic alterations by changing its number of internal or external links and the root link length of fine roots vis-à-vis a heterogeneous environment, thereby optimizing the rates of water capture and space utilization.

The upper reaches of the Yangtze River are a very important ecological barrier in China, but the ecological benefits of large-scale Cupressus funebris Endl.plantations are low. This study investigated 12 plantations of different compositions and densities, including two densities of Cinnamomum septentrionale Hand.-Mazz. (Cs), Alnus cremastogyne Burk. (Ac), and Toona sinensis (A. Juss.) Roem. (Ts), and mixed plantations of Cs + Ac (CA), Ts + Cs (TC), Ts + Ac (TA), and Ac + Ts + Cs (ATC) and the cutting-blank (CB), and, at the same time, the unreconstructed pure C. funebris (Cf) forest was set as the control. We aimed to explore the influence mechanism of upper tree composition and density on shrub diversity, as well as the relationship between shrub diversity and niche. Our research results are as follows: (1) Among all the patterns, the TA, CA, and TC patterns are the most conducive to improving the diversity of shrubs. The composition and density of different trees have a great influence on the diversity of shrubs. (2) Niche is closely related to the diversity of shrubs. In the patterns of low niche overlap between dominant shrubs, the diversity of shrubs is greater. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of the relationship between the diversity of overstory and shrubs, and reveals the relationship between niche and diversity.