The fungal dimension of biodiversity: magnitude, significance, and conservation

Much as Rachel Carson's \"Silent Spring\" was a call to action against the pesticides that were devastating bird populations, Charles S. Elton's classic \"The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants\" sounded an early warning about an environmental catastrophe that has become all too familiar today-the invasion of nonnative species. From kudzu to zebra mussels to Asian long-horned beetles, nonnative species are colonizing new habitats around the world at an alarming rate thanks to accidental and intentional human intervention. One of the leading causes of extinctions of native animals and plants, invasive species also wreak severe economic havoc, causing $79 billion worth of damage in the United States alone. Elton explains the devastating effects that invasive species can have on local ecosystems in clear, concise language and with numerous examples. The first book on invasion biology, and still the most cited, Elton's masterpiece provides an accessible, engaging introduction to one of the most important environmental crises of our time. Charles S. Elton was one of the founders of ecology, who also established and led Oxford University's Bureau of Animal Population. His work has influenced generations of ecologists and zoologists, and his publications remain central to the literature in modern biology. \"History has caught up with Charles Elton's foresight, and \"The Ecology of Invasions\" can now be seen as one of the central scientific books of our century.\"-David Quammen, from the Foreword to \"Killer Algae: The True Tale of a Biological Invasion\

The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants

The origin and early evolution of land plants in the mid-Palaeozoic era, between about 480 and 360 million years ago, was an important event in the history of life, with far-reaching consequences for the evolution of terrestrial organisms and global environments. A recent surge of interest, catalysed by palaeobotanical discoveries and advances in the systematics of living plants, provides a revised perspective on the evolution of early land plants and suggests new directions for future research.

/pdf/the-origin-and-early-evolution-of-plants-on-land-25o6hryi4f.pdf

The origin and early evolution of plants on land

Fossilized fungal hyphae and spores from the Ordovician of Wisconsin (with an age of about 460 million years) strongly resemble modern arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomales, Zygomycetes). These fossils indicate that Glomales-like fungi were present at a time when the land flora most likely only consisted of plants on the bryophytic level. Thus, these fungi may have played a crucial role in facilitating the colonization of land by plants, and the fossils support molecular estimates of fungal phylogeny that place the origin of the major groups of terrestrial fungi (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Glomales) around 600 million years ago.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/289/5486/1920.full.pdf

Glomalean Fungi from the Ordovician

The fossil record for angiosperm pollen types which are comparable to recent taxa is evaluated, following a similar survey published in 1970. Special attention is paid to the dating of the sediments. Evidence for 139 families is considered to be reliable, for others the records are cited as provisional, pending the accumulation of more evidence. Some published records are shown to be erroneous.

Fossil pollen records of extant angiosperms.

The plant spore record indicates two major phases of adaptive radiation of land plants before the Devonian; these can be interpreted to correspond to different reproductive, vegetative, and ecophysiological strategies of these early terrestrial plants. The first major adaptive radiation by plants onto land occurred in the mid Ordovician. These early plants are represented by abundant obligate spore tetrads; this assemblage persists from the mid Ordovician to about the mid-late Early Silurian. The fossil spore records indicate that these primary producers were widespread by the end of the Ordovician and the beginning of the Silurian. The close similarity of the fossil tetrads with obligate spore tetrads produced by some hepatics and mosses suggests a non-vascular vegetative grade of organization for plants of this interval. The second major adaptive radiation begins with the replacement of the monotonous spore tetrad assemblage by single trilete spores in the mid-late Early Silurian. These trilete spores find morphological counterpart with spores produced by vascular cryptogams; they suggest a vegetative grade of organization at the vascular level for plants of this interval. The initially smooth-walled trilete spores of this radiation are followed by diverse assemblages of trilete spores with variously ornamented spore coat patterns and varied laesurae morphologies by the mid-Late Silurian. The interval from the mid Ordovician to the mid-late Early Silurian is hypothesized on the basis of the abundant and widespread spore records to be one of rapid colonization by founder populations with limited genetic diversity and with life-history strategies that included an ecophysiological tolerance to desiccation and a short vegetative life cycle. The interval from the mid-late Early Silurian to the Pridoli largely coincides with the appearance of vascular plant megafossils. It is hypothesized on the basis of the spore assemblages to be one of major establishment of large populations of genetically diverse plants exploiting a broad spectrum of ecological sites that have escaped representation in the meagre megafossil record.

The microfossil record of early land plants: advances in understanding of early terrestrialization, 1970-1984

Dispersed microfossils (spores and phytodebris) provide the earliest evidence for land plants. They are first reported from the Llanvirn (Mid-Ordovician). More or less identical assemblages occur from the Llanvirn (Mid-Ordovician) to the late Llandovery (Early Silurian), suggesting a period of relative stasis some 40 Myr in duration. Various lines of evidence suggest that these early dispersed microfossils derive from parent plants that were bryophyte-like if not in fact bryophytes. In the late Llandovery (late Early Silurian) there was a major change in the nature of dispersed spore assemblages as the separated products of dyads (hilate monads) and tetrads (trilete spores) became relatively abundant. The inception of trilete spores probably represents the appearance of vascular plants or their immediate progenitors. A little later in time, in the Wenlock (early Late Silurian), the earliest unequivocal land plant megafossils occur. They are represented by rhyniophytoids. It is only from the Late Silurian onwards that the microfossil/ megafossil record can be integrated and utilized in interpretation of the flora. Dispersed microfossils are preserved in vast numbers, in a variety of environments, and have a reasonable spatial and temporal fossil record. The fossil record of plant megafossils by comparison is poor and biased, with only a dozen or so known pre-Devonian assemblages. In this paper, the early land plant microfossil record, and its interpretation, are reviewed. New discoveries, novel techniques and fresh lines of inquiry are outlined and discussed.

/pdf/the-microfossil-record-of-early-land-plants-2qerlvq3hu.pdf

The Microfossil Record of Early Land Plants

Evolution of the freshwater ecosystem: The fossil record

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/144/3619/719.3.full.pdf

Jane Gray

Papers

The microfossil record of early land plants: advances in understanding of early terrestrialization, 1970-1984

The Microfossil Record of Early Land Plants

Evolution of the freshwater ecosystem: The fossil record

The Lower Tertiary Floras of Southern England.

A critique of Phanerozoic climatic models involving changes in the CO2 content of the atmosphere