This article was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

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A new paper details how the remnants of dead organisms strongly influence the fate of survivors.

Death casts a shadow over life, not only for people but also other animals, plants and entire ecosystems.

In some ways, the phenomenon is well known. A fallen tree sprouts a plethora of mushrooms while also hosting ants, beetles, and the creatures that feast on them.

But a new paper argues that these forces play important yet poorly understood roles in nearly all ecosystems, with the remnants of certain species exerting significant influence long after they die.

The study, published Wednesday in Science Advances , claims to be “the first continental-scale assessment of how live foundation species are influenced by their dead counterparts.”

These “foundation species” generally provide the physical architecture of an ecosystem and tend to be its most abundant organisms —…