Abstract: Root distribution and competition is often neglected, as roots are hidden in the soil and morphologically look similar, making any distinction between species challenging. As plant roots are crucial for resource uptake, the growth and distribution of roots in the soil determine their ability to use and compete for water and nutrients. This makes investigation on the manner in which intercropping affects root distribution and growth crucial. The quantification of the root fraction from individual species in intercropping is restricted due to methodological challenges. The objectives of this study were to develop and test an anatomical key using histochemical staining of cross sections to identify roots to the plant species level; and (ii) to demonstrate that we could use this method to quantify the proportion of individual plant roots from different intercropping combinations. From our recent study, it is confirmed that root anatomical and histochemical methods was shown to be a useful and simple method for studying root interactions in intercropping.

Biography: Dr. Affendy Hassan is a senior lecturer at Faculty of Tropical Forestry, and joined Universiti Malaysia Sabah since 2006. He received Diploma in Forestry, Bachelor Forestry Science from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Master of Science (Agroforestry) from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), and PhD (Crop Science) from University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Currently, he is the Head of Forest Plantation and Agroforestry Programme since April 2019. His research endeavors are in the field of agroforestry, intercropping, plant roots and root measurement methods. To date, he has been involved in 12 research projects, 5 of which he is the project leader and 7 as a co-researcher. He has written, edited and published more than fivety papers, chapters in books, abstracts and reports in journals, books, proceedings and other popular contributions. Beside actively supervising undergraduates and postgraduate students, he also became external examiner to postgraduate theses from local and overseas universities besides being reviewer of international journals articles and books. He has been invited as speaker, session chair, moderator and facilitator in local and international workshops, symposia and conferences. Currently, he is also a resource person for Malaysian Network Agroforestry Education (MaNAFE) under Southeast Asia Network Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE) since 2009.