Conifers represent an ancient and diverse branch in higher plant evolution. Some conifer species dominate modern-day ecosystems that are repositories for large amounts of terrestrial sequestered carbon, while others exist in populations numbering tens of individuals. Conifer forests are among the most productive in terms of annual lignocellulosic biomass generation, and coniferous trees are the… [Read More]

Photosynthetic marine microalgae, particularly the relatively few species that form massive blooms, are responsible for half of total global carbon fixation, on the order of 45-50 billion tons of production annually. The chlorophyll c-containing haptophyte alga genus Phaeocystis is distributed globally and forms massive blooms that structure planktonic ecosystems, export significant amounts of materials to… [Read More]

More than 75% of the carbon in terrestrial ecosystems is stored in forests. More than half of this carbon is found in soil organic matter (SOM). Recent studies have indicated that ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi provide the dominant pathway through which carbon enters the SOM pool. The same fungi also drive the cycling of other nutrients… [Read More]

The origin of land plants (embryophytes) was one of the major evolutionary events in the history of planet earth. Experimental, paleontological, morphological, and molecular systematic data all point to the liverworts as being some of the first plants to evolve and colonize the Ordovician landscape. Thus liverworts are a key group to include in any… [Read More]