JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

Assessing the root system and its tensile strength is necessary for determine the impact of roots in increasing the soil shear strength. The present study aims to investigate effects of slope and flow of riverbank on root system of riparian POPULOYS trees. In a relatively direct interval, 6 riparian POPULOYS trees were chosen on the slope of Simereh riverbank. To assess the root system, the circular profiles trenching method was utilized. The surface around each tree was divided into four quadrants: upper quadrant, lower quadrant, in slope direction and in flow direction. In every quadrant, number and diameter of roots were measured. The obtained results showed that the highest number of roots were in 90-100 cm depth. 59% of Roots, in the slop direction and 53% of roots in flow direction, were located in the top quadrant. Approximately, 97% of roots had up to 20 mm diameter. The greatest difference in the number of roots in upper, lower, in slop direction and in flow direction quadrants, were seen in diameters up to 5 mm. In slope direction, this difference was almost 2.7 times more than the difference seen in flow direction. The average ratio of root cross-section was 0.26%. The obtained results indicate that the root system of riparian POPULOYS trees on the riverbank is asymmetrical.