Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Studying change
- 3 Key concepts in plant evolution
- 4 The origin and extent of human-influenced ecosystems
- 5 Consequences of human influences on the biosphere
- 6 Categories
- 7 Investigating microevolution in plants in anthropogenic ecosystems
- 8 Plant microevolution in managed grassland ecosystems
- 9 Harvesting crops: arable and forestry
- 10 Pollution and microevolutionary change
- 11 Introduced plants
- 12 Endangered species: investigating the extinction process at the population level
- 13 Hybridisation and speciation in anthropogenically influenced ecosystems
- 14 Ex situ conservation
- 15 In situ conservation: within and outside reserves
- 16 Creative conservation through restoration and reintroduction
- 17 Reserves in the landscape
- 18 Climate change
- 19 Microevolution and climate change
- 20 The implications of climate change for the theory and practice of conservation
- 21 Overview
- References
- Index
3 - Key concepts in plant evolution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Studying change
- 3 Key concepts in plant evolution
- 4 The origin and extent of human-influenced ecosystems
- 5 Consequences of human influences on the biosphere
- 6 Categories
- 7 Investigating microevolution in plants in anthropogenic ecosystems
- 8 Plant microevolution in managed grassland ecosystems
- 9 Harvesting crops: arable and forestry
- 10 Pollution and microevolutionary change
- 11 Introduced plants
- 12 Endangered species: investigating the extinction process at the population level
- 13 Hybridisation and speciation in anthropogenically influenced ecosystems
- 14 Ex situ conservation
- 15 In situ conservation: within and outside reserves
- 16 Creative conservation through restoration and reintroduction
- 17 Reserves in the landscape
- 18 Climate change
- 19 Microevolution and climate change
- 20 The implications of climate change for the theory and practice of conservation
- 21 Overview
- References
- Index
Summary
Our current views on evolution in plants are firmly rooted in Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Before Darwin and Wallace formulated their concept of evolution, it was assumed that species had been individually created in a single act of Special Creation. They fitted perfectly their environment, and any deviations in morphology that occurred were the result of accident. Species were essentially unchanging and unchangeable ‘ideal types’. Moreover, the world had been created very recently. Thus, by counting scriptural generations, Archbishop Ussher came to the conclusion that the Earth originated in 4004 BC (Mayr, 1991, 16).
The first critical appraisals of Special Creation predated Darwin's theory of evolution (Briggs & Walters, 1997), but Darwin provided the most formidable challenge to the former orthodoxy, by suggesting not only a plausible mechanism of evolution but also by assembling a wide array of evidence. The naturalist Wallace independently arrived at the concept of natural selection, but with different emphases (Sheppard, 1975). In 1858, before Darwin had published his ideas, Wallace sent him an essay on evolution by natural selection. The question of priority was resolved by Darwin's friends, who arranged a meeting at the Linnean Society of London in July 1858 at which Wallace's essay was presented and Darwin's ideas were represented by unpublished extracts from his writings. Then, over the next few months, Darwin (1901) wrote an extended account of his work: On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The main strands of the concept are as follows.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009