Making Eden

Plants are absolutely fundamental to the functioning of life on earth. But how did the earliest plants first emerge from water and conquer the continents? Using the latest research, David Beerling tells their evolutionary story. And, as we face catastrophic loss of biodiversity, he highlights the profound effect they have on ecosystems and climate.

David Beerling is the Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences, and Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Sheffield. Before this he held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, where his work on the evolution of life and the physical environment was recognised by the award of the prestigious Philip Leverhulme Prize in earth sciences in 2001. He has published numerous articles in academic journals and is the author of The Emerald Planet (OUP, 2007). This book formed the basis of a major three-part BBC Two television series, How to Grow a Planet. He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, London, in 2014.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Illustrations and plates
1: All flesh is grass
2: Fifty shades of green
3: Genomes decoded
4: Ancient genes, new plants
5: Gas valves
6: Ancestral alliances
7: Sculpting climate
8: Eden under siege
Further reading
Index