Post provided by Liming Cai Much of the species diversity on Earth is driven by biotic interactions. Ecologists and evolutionary biologists, including myself, strive to characterize these phenomena through careful field observation. However, cryptic underground interactions still largely remain a black box even with long-term surveys. Luckily, some of these cryptic interactions, such as plant parasitism, leave a unique genetic footprint that allows researchers to … Continue reading Dead alien DNA tells the story of underground ecological interactions