Scientist Who Studies Co-Evolution of Plants and Climates is Next Bass Scholar

A scientist who studies co-evolution of plants and climates is coming to campus this fall as the next Edward P. Bass Distinguished Environment Scholar at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.

A scientist who studies co-evolution of plants and climates is coming to campus this fall as the next Edward P. Bass Distinguished Environment Scholar at the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies.

Professor David Beerling of Sheffield University will be on campus from October to March and will be affiliated with Yale’s Department of Geology & Geophysics.

Beerling’s work focuses on critical moments in Earth’s history, as defined by abrupt climatic changes, mass extinctions or innovative evolutionary events. He leads a major interdisciplinary research group at Sheffield which has earned an international reputation for addressing fundamental questions concerning the co-evolution of plants and the Earth system over the the past 540 million years. The team does this in three ways: morphological and geochemical analyses of fossil plant materials; laboratory-based experimental programs which are designed to reveal how modern genotypes operate in simulated ancient atmospheres and climates; and theoretical modelling.

He is the author of a popular science book, “The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth’s History,” as well as over 160 scientific journal publications, and he has lectured widely to both scientists and non-scientists.

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