Root–root interactions: extending our perspective to be more inclusive of the range of theories in ecology and agriculture using in-vivo analyses

There is a large body of literature on competitive interactions among plants, but many studies have only focused on above-ground interactions and little is known about root-root dynamics between interacting plants. The perspective on possible mechanisms that explain the outcome of root-root interactions has recently been extended to include non-resource-driven mechanisms (as well as resource-driven mechanisms) of root competition and positive interactions such as facilitation. These approaches have often suffered from being static, partly due to the lack of appropriate methodologies for in-situ non-destructive root characterization.