Plants invade the land : evolutionary and environmental perspectives / editors, Patricia G. Gensel, Dianne Edwards.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What do we now know about the origins of plants on land, from an evolutionary and an environmental perspective? The essays in this collection present a synthesis of our present state of knowledge, integrating current information in paleobotany with physical, chemical, and geological data.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Embryophytes on Land: The Ordovician to Lochkovian (Lower Devonian) Record
• Rustling in the Undergrowth: Animals in Early Terrestrial Ecosystems
• New Data on Nothia aphylla Lyon 1964 ex El-Saadawy et Lacey 1979, a Poorly Known Plant from the Lower Devonian Rynie Chert
• Morphology of Above- and Below-Ground Sturctures in Early Devonian (Pragian-Emsian) Plants
• The Posongchong Floral Assemblages of Southeastern Yunnan, China-Diversity and Disparity in Early Devonian Plant Assemblages
• The Middle Devonian Flora Revisited
• The Origin, Morphology, and Ecophysiology of Early Embryophytes: Neontological and Paleontological Perspectives
• Biological Roles for Phenolic Compounds in the Evolution of Early Land Plants
• The Effect of the Rise of Land Plants on Atmospheric CO2 During the Paleozoic
• Early Terrestrial Plant Environments: An Example from the Emsian of Gaspe, Canada
• Effects of the Middle to Late Devonian Spread of Vascular Land Plants on Weathering Regimes, Marine Biotas, and Global Climate
• Diversification of Siluro-Devonian Plant Traces in Paleosols and Influence on Estimates of Paleoatmospheric CO2 Levels

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Editors Gensel (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Edwards (Cardiff Univ., Wales) have accomplished what often eludes editors of proceedings: they have developed a cohesive, comprehensive, and scientifically satisfying story from a series of technical monographs. The editors and chapter authors worked together to integrate new data and established concepts on terrestrial plant evolution and associated global change. The early chapters are devoted to describing the flora and fauna during the ascent of terrestrial plants. Subsequent chapters build on this information and, by including morphological, biochemical, geologic, and molecular data, provide valuable perspective on the unique capacity of terrestrial flora to adapt to, interact with, and dramatically alter their own environment. A story unfolds across the chapters of how terrestrial plants, in evolving the ability to perform such "simple" tricks as forming lignin, vascular tissues, roots, and seeds, became a potent force for global climate change. Closing chapters bring the global geologic picture into focus, drawing on the information presented in the earlier chapters and suggesting areas for future inquiry. Appropriate for the serious student of paleobotany and paleoecology, and a valuable resource and think-piece for instructors and researchers in the field. Graduate students; faculty and researchers. R. M. Beaudry Michigan State University