Making Eden: How Plants Transformed a Barren Planet

The origin of the plant kingdom is fundamental to our survival, and David Beerling's book "Making Eden" reveals the hidden history of Earth's sun-shot greenery and considers its future prospects as we farm the planet to feed the world.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 28 March 2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Over 7 billion people rely on plants for healthy, productive, and secure lives, yet few of us pause to contemplate the origin of the plant kingdom that transformed the world into a lush green paradise and made our existence possible. As the human population continues to soar, our very survival hinges on how we treat the plant kingdom and the soils that sustain it. Understanding the evolutionary history of our land floras, the story of how plant life emerged from water and conquered the continents to dominate the planet, is essential to our own existence. In Making Eden, David Beerling unveils the hidden history of Earth's sun-shot greenery and explores its future prospects as we cultivate the planet to feed the world.

Describing the early plant pioneers and their intimate, symbiotic relationship with fungi, he examines the central role plants play in both ecosystems and the regulation of climate. As threats to plant biodiversity mount today, Beerling discusses the resultant implications for food security and climate change and how these can be avoided. Drawing on the latest exciting scientific findings, including Beerling's own fieldwork in the UK, North America, and New Zealand, and his experimental research programs over the past decade, this is an exciting new take on how plants greened the continents.

Weight: 510g
Dimension: 165 x 242 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198798309