We can also integrate these rich data sets across continents and address novel questions relating to these relict forests. Are similar patterns of diversity, function, and relationship, including codiversification, observed across the mixed mesophytic forests of EA and ENA? If so, phylogenetic constraints may be more important determinants of biodiversity than local adaptation, even across long stretches of geological time. If not, other forces that may be difficult to disentangle (e.g. local adaptation, drift) may be stronger in shaping co-distributed plant and microbial diversity.