I have been saying it ample times: you can not understand the true behaviour of plants in the mountains without looking at what happens belowground.

I have been saying it ample times indeed, yet now we finally have the opportunity to actually investigate what is happening underneath the soil surface within the framework of all the other research we are doing.

And that is a big step. It might reveal some hidden relationships between plant and soil that have always been overlooked. It might reveal why one plant is moving up- or downhill fast, while the other stays stuck in one spot.

To get these answers, we teamed up with a new professor in our research group at the University of Antwerp, who is a specialist on the world in the dark under our feet. With our combined skills, the secrets will soon have to surrender.

Exciting results will follow later, as usual…