Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 1983
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring 1983, pp. 000-000.
Abstract
The past decade has seen a revival of biologists' interests in grasslands, and the results are papers, books, and symposia on grassland plants and ecosystems. This book is the product of a symposium at the thirtieth annual meeting of the Amercan Institute of Biological Science at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, and as such will appeal mostly to biologists.
The two parts of the book are integrated by the theme of evolution, the first part dealing with the taxonomy and evolution of grasses themselves and the second part with the evolutionary ecology of grasslands as systems. While taxonomy is one of the oldest biological fields and its integration with evolutionary theory is far advanced, the application of evolutionary thought to ecological systems is very recent and has developed rapidly as a major area of biological inquiry.
One goal of biology is to determine the relationships of groups of organisms. This has proven exceptionally difficult in the grass family, whose affinities remain obscure. Here, Stebbins suggests a tropical, grasslike family, the Flagellariaceae, as the closest living relatives. He also reviews the criteria for evaluating evolutionary trends in the family and summarizes the morphological, biochemical, and genetic evidence.
A topic seldom mentioned but ripe for further investigation is given an entire chapter: the role of human activity in influencing evolution in grasses, whether directly through artificial hybridization and domestication or indirectly through alteration of habitats by such activities as clearing of forests and agricultural disturbance of natural ecosystems.
Four chapters in the first part of the book deal with a single tribe of the grass family, the tribe Triticeae, which includes wheat, barley, and numerous other grasses. The taxonomic circumscription of this important group is unusually difficult because of such phenomena as parallel evolution, persistence of intermediate forms, and genetic homogeneity, all of which confuse biologists' understanding. Biologists try to devise taxonomic nomenclature that reflects actual relationships, and these chapters cover a variety of procedures and approaches used in determining those relationships.
Comments
Copyright 1983 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln