Biodiversity and Evolution of Tracheophytes

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Plants will be devoted to the terrestrial plants commonly referred to as Bryophytes (liverworts, mosses, and hornworts) and to our understanding of how these ancient lines evolved into the modern tracheophytes. At present, the common belief is that bryophytes are not monophyletic but are more likely to embody three paraphyletic lines (Marchantiophyta, Anthocerotophyta, and Bryophyta). Those three bryophyte lines compose the second largest group of land plants, after the most recently evolved Angiosperms. The Bryophyta are crucial to our discernment of how early land plant evolution led to development of vascular plants. Beyond their importance to phylogenetics and evolution, these three lineages perform a key role in the biodiversity of marshland, mountain, forest, and tundra ecosystems. Having such a great biomass allows these species to have major impacts on nutrient cycling, water retention, and global carbon/CO₂ cycling. Discussions of the evolution, biodiversity, and phylogenetics of these ancestral, terrestrial flora will help us to better appreciate how these earliest species developed physiologically, biochemically, and morphologically into the modern Tracheophytic species that surround us today.  

Prof. Dr. James Campanella
Guest Editor

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