Focus

Earth shaped by plants

(Image credited to iStockphoto.com/Thinkstock)

Vegetation has been a key part of the Earth's surface for only about 450 million years. With the progression of the terrestrial landscape from bare surfaces to widespread coverage by plants - ground vegetation initially, then trees and finally flowering plants - the Earth's surface and its biogeochemical processes have also changed. In this issue, we present a collection of articles that explore how the evolution of terrestrial plants and the Earth's surface have affected each other.

Top of page Editorial One and only Earth - p 81 doi :10.1038/ngeo1400 Reports from the Kepler mission have raised hopes for finding an Earth-like planet. Nevertheless, our Earth is probably unique — not just because of its distance from the Sun, but also because it has co-evolved with the life forms it has hosted.

Top of page News and Views Fluvial Geomorphology: Wood and river landscapes - pp 93-94 Angela Gurnell doi :10.1038/ngeo1382 The influence of trees and dead wood on river dynamics has long been overlooked. Recent work suggests that large wood pieces can stabilize the land surface, contributing to a large-wood cycle that profoundly affects floodplain morphology and ecology. Ecology: Plants on the edge - pp 93 Alicia Newton doi :10.1038/ngeo1393

Top of page Feature First plants cooled the Ordovician - pp 86-89 Timothy M. Lenton, Michael Crouch, Martin Johnson, Nuno Pires & Liam Dolan doi :10.1038/ngeo1390 The Late Ordovician period, ending 444 million years ago, was marked by the onset of glaciations. The expansion of non-vascular land plants accelerated chemical weathering and may have drawn down enough atmospheric carbon dioxide to trigger the growth of ice sheets.

Top of page Review Palaeozoic landscapes shaped by plant evolution - p 99-105 Martin R. Gibling & Neil S. Davies doi :10.1038/ngeo1376 Throughout the Palaeozoic era, about 540 to 250 million years ago, plants colonized land and rapidly diversified. An analysis of the palaeontologic record shows that this diversification irrevocably altered the shape and form of fluvial systems.