Plant Variation and Evolution
Cambridge University Press
Edition: 4, 6/30/2016
EAN 9781107602229, ISBN10: 110760222X
Paperback, 596 pages, 24.6 x 18.9 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
We are in the midst of a biological revolution. Molecular tools are now providing new means of critically testing hypotheses and models of microevolution in populations of wild, cultivated, weedy and feral plants. They are also offering the opportunity for significant progress in the investigation of long-term evolution of flowering plants, as part of molecular phylogenetic studies of the Tree of Life. This long-awaited fourth edition, fully revised by David Briggs, reflects new insights provided by molecular investigations and advances in computer science. Briggs considers the implications of these for our understanding of the evolution of flowering plants, as well as the potential for future advances. Numerous new sections on important topics such as the evolutionary impact of human activities, taxonomic challenges, gene flow and distribution, hybridisation, speciation and extinction, conservation and the molecular genetic basis of breeding systems will ensure that this remains a classic text for both undergraduate and graduate students in the field.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Note on names of plants
List of abbreviations
1. Investigating plant variation and evolution
2. From Ray to Darwin
3. Early work on biometry
4. Early work on the basis of individual variation
5. Post-Darwinian ideas about evolution
6. DNA
towards an understanding of heredity and molecular evolution
7. Breeding systems
8. Infraspecific variation and the ecotype concept
9. Pattern and process in plant populations
10. Pattern and process
factors interacting with natural selection
11. Populations
origins and extinctions
12. Species and speciation
concepts and models
13. Allopatric speciation and hybridisation
14. Abrupt speciation by polyploidy
15. The species concept
16. Flowering plant evolution
advances, challenges and prospects
17. Historical biogeography
18. The evolutionary impact of human activities
19. The taxonomic challenge ahead
20. Conservation
from protection to restoration and beyond
Index.