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Photosynthesis in Bryophytes and Early Land Plants pp 59–77Cite as

The Diversification of Bryophytes and Vascular Plants in Evolving Terrestrial Environments

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Part of the book series: Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration ((AIPH,volume 37))

Summary

This chapter covers the basic needs of plants and the constraints of the physical environment on a pioneer land flora, including acquisition of CO2, nutrients, and coping with the intermittent availability of water. The radiation climate, heat and mass transfer, laminar and turbulent boundary layers, heat budgets, and the control of evaporation and temperature are briefly discussed. The importance of scale is emphasized; the vascular-plant strategy is optimal at large scales (> a few cm), but the poikilohydric strategy is optimal at smaller scales. A scenario is envisaged for evolution of the “vascular-plant package”, allowing a transition from reliance on evaporative cooling close to the ground surface, to convective cooling of erect axes. The changing physical environment and vegetation through successive periods of geological time is briefly sketched in relation to the evolution of bryophyte diversity. Vascular - plants have been an important part of the environment for bryophyte evolution since the early history of plant life on land.

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Acknowledgments

Many people over the years have contributed to the ideas presented in this chapter, from Kenneth Sporne, Paul Richards and Harold Whitehouse who introduced me to palaeobotany and bryophytes in my student days. Many others have influenced my thoughts about bryophyte ecophysiology and evolution since, among them Tim Dilks, Janet Jenkins, Tom Revesz, Mike Patrick and Nick Smirnoff in Exeter, and John Raven, Dianne Edwards, Derek Bewley, Mel Oliver, Zoltán Tuba, Zoltán Nagy, Zsolt Csintalan, Jeff Duckett, Roberto Ligrone and Silvia Pressel elsewhere. I haven’t always agreed with them but they have all made me think. If I needed a challenge to think-through the big picture, it was the invitation to write this chapter, for which I am grateful to our two editors.

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  1. Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Geoffrey Pope Building, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK

    Michael C. F. Proctor

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  1. Michael C. F. Proctor
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Correspondence to Michael C. F. Proctor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

    David T. Hanson

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, New York, USA

    Steven K. Rice

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Proctor, M.C.F. (2014). The Diversification of Bryophytes and Vascular Plants in Evolving Terrestrial Environments. In: Hanson, D., Rice, S. (eds) Photosynthesis in Bryophytes and Early Land Plants. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6988-5_4

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