Multiple routes underground? Frost alone cannot explain the evolution of underground trees

Multiple routes underground? Frost alone cannot explain the evolution of underground trees.

Finckh et al. (2016; this issue of New Phytologist, pp. 904–909) query our inferences drawn from a recent study (Maurin et al., 2014) on the evolutionary origins of the geoxylic suffrutex life form in southern Africa. Geoxylic suffrutices, or more informally ‘underground trees’ represent a distinct growth form characterized by a long-lived woody xylopodia underground with often short lived aeri...

1878 Measurement of Multiple Muon Rates Underground

Empirical Evaluation of Wireless Underground-to-Underground Communication in Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Many applications for irrigation management and environment monitoring exploit buried sensors wired-connected to the soil surface for information retrieval. Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSNs) is an emerging area of research that promises to provide communication capabilities to these sensors. To accomplish this, a reliable wireless underground communication channel is necessary, allow...

Characteristics of Underground Channel for Wireless Underground Sensor Networks

Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSN) constitute one of the promising application areas of the recently developed wireless sensor networking techniques. The main difference between WUSN and the terrestrial wireless sensor networks is the communication medium. The propagation characteristics of electromagnetic (EM) waves in soil and the significant differences between propagation in air pr...

Evolution underground: shedding light on the diversification of subterranean insects

A recent study in BMC Evolutionary Biology has reconstructed the molecular phylogeny of a large Mediterranean cave-dwelling beetle clade, revealing an ancient origin and strong geographic structuring. It seems likely that diversification of this clade in the Oligocene was seeded by an ancestor already adapted to subterranean life.