As several articles in the May and July 2015 issues of Science highlighted, identification and quantification of DNA from environmental samples of all kinds—modern and ancient, aquatic and terrestrial—is enabling ecologists to answer longstanding questions about community structure and function. We no longer need to capture (or even to see) a species in a community to know it is present and, to some degree, to infer its ecological interactions. This symposium will highlight how the use of eDNA facilitates hypothesis-driven research in ecology, and fosters the increased dialogue between molecular ecologists, stakeholders and a diverse suite of other ecological researchers. The symposium will focus on the intersection of many avenues significant to the role of biodiversity in the Anthropocene such as invasion biology, conservation, pollution and policy. High-profile panelists will illustrate means of linking ecological pattern and process from trace sources of DNA, be it in a stomach, in a few grams of sediment, or in a jug of water. They will specifically highlight how the use of eDNA can deliver “more for less” and measure impacts of global change on terrestrial, freshwater and marine communities, and do so in the context of informing conservation, management and policy.