➔ Before land plants the only life on the continents consisted of 

bacteria, archaea and single celled protist that thrive in wet soils 

➔ Plants continue to thrive because they provide the earth with huge 

amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere 

➔ Plants take carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reduce it to 

make sugars 

➔ Both green algae and land plants produce carbon dioxide, however 

they fix more carbon dioxide than they produce 

➔ The loss of prairies and forest due to subarbiization or farm 

contributed to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere 

◆ Carbon dioxide levels are partly responsible for the rising 

temperature with global climate change 

➔ Green plants 

◆ They alter (change) the environment in ways that benefit many 

other organisms 

◆ Because of their mass and importance to other organisms, the 

green plants dominate terrestrial and freshwater habitats. 

◆ Green plants are everywhere (in the pond, lake water under a 

microscope, forest, meadow) 

◆ It is composed of two different major types of organisms 

● The green algae  

 ○ Important photosynthetic organisms in aquatic 

habitats 

◆ Lakes 

◆ Ponds 

◆ And other freshwater settings 

○ protist 

● the land plants 

○ Key photosynthesizers in terrestrial environments 

○ First organisms that could thrive with their tissues 

completely exposed to the air instead of partially 

or completely submerged 

○ Made the earth green 

○ Dominant primary producers in terrestrial 

ecosystems 

◆ They convert energy in sunlight into chemical 

energy 

○ They are the key to carbon cycle on the continents 

➔ These two types of organisms are studied together because 

○ They are the closest relative to land plants and 

form a monophyletic group with them 

 ○ The transition from aquatic to terrestrial life 

occured when land plants evolved from green 

algae 

➔ Why do biologist study the green algae and land plants 

◆ Because they are fascinating and because we could not live 

without them 

◆ Humans are depended on land plants for  

● Food 

● Oxygen 

● Fuel 

● The fibers used to make clothing and other products 

● Building materials 

● Pharmaceuticals 

● Landscaping 

● Bouquets 

◆ Research programs focus on two types of land plants that 

cause problems for people 

◆ Weeds 

● Decreases the productivity of crop plants 

◆ Newly introduced species that invade and then degrade 

natural areas 

➔ Plants provide ecosystem services 

 ◆ Ecosystem consists of all of the organisms in a particular area 

along with physical components of the environment such as 

the atmosphere, precipitation, surface water, sunlight, soil and 

nutrients 

◆ Green algae and land plants provide ecosystem service 

because they enhance the life supporting attributes of the 

atmosphere, surface water, soil, and other physical 

components 

● Ecosystem services 

○ All of the benefits that humans derive, directly or 

indirectly from ecosystem functions 

➔ Plants produce oxygen 

◆ Plants perform oxygenic photosynthesis 

● In the process, electrons that are removed from water 

molecules are used to reduce carbon dioxide. 

○ By tripping electrons from water, plants release 

oxygen molecules as by product 

◆ Oxygenic photosynthesis evolved in cyanobacteria and was 

responsible for the origin of an oxygen rich atmosphere 

➔ Plants build and hold soil 

 ◆ Fallen leaves, roots, and stems that are not eaten when they 

are alive provide food for worms, fungi, bacteria, archaea, 

protista, and other decomposers in the soil 

● These organisms add organic matter to the soil, which 

changes the soil structure and the ability of soils to hold 

nutrients and water, which then benefits other organisms 

◆ The roots produced by trees, grassses and toher land plants 

helps hold soil particles in place 

◆ They take nutrients in the soil to prevent the nutrients from 

being blown away or washed away 

◆ Areas that suffer from grazing, farming, logging or 

suburbanization, large quantities of soil and nutrients are lost 

to erosion by wind and water 

➔ Plants hold water and moderate climate 

◆ Plant tissues take up and retain water 

● Intact forest, prairies and wetlands prevent rain from 

quickly running off a landscape 

◆ Plants leave soften the physical impact of rainfall on soil 

◆ Plant organic matter builds the soil’s water holding capacity 

◆ Plants provide shades to reduce temperatures beneath and 

increase relative humidity. 

 ● By that they reduce the impact of winds that dry out 

landscapes 

● When plants are removed for farms or suburbs, habitats 

becomes drier and become susceptible to a more 

extreme temperatures 

➔ Plants are primary producers 

◆ They convert energy in sunlight into chemical energy 

● The sugars produced by photosynthesis support all the 

other organisms present in terrestrial habitats 

◆ Plants are eaten by herbivores  

● Herbivores (plant eaters) 

○ Ranges from insects to elephants 

● Carnivores (meat eaters) (the herbivores are eaten by 

them) 

○ Ranges from spiders to polar bears 

● Omnivores (all eaters) 

○ Humans 

◆ They consume 

◆ plants, Herbivores such as chicken and 

cattle, and carnivores such as salmon and 

tuna 

○ Eat both plants and animals 

 ○ Feed at different levels of the food chain 

○ People consume plant 

➔ Plants provide humans with food, fuel, fiber, building materials and 

medicines 

◆ Food 

● Artificial selection 

○ Manipulation by humans in animals and plant by 

allowing individuals with desirable traits to 

reproduce 

● Fiber and building material 

○ Woody plants provide lumber for houses and 

furniture 

◆ It is stronger than concrete, cast iron  

◆ Aluminum  

◆ Or steel 

● Pharmaceuticals 

○ Plants synthesize (make chemically) in order to 

repel insects, deer, or other type of herbivores 

◆ Example 

● Caffeine, morphine are used to repel 

herbivores 

➔ How do biologist study green algae and land plants 

 ◆ To understand green plants biologist analyze 

● Morphological traits 

● Fossil record 

● Phylogenetic trees estimated form similarities and 

differences in DNA sequences rom homologous genes 

and whole genomes 

➔ Analyzing morphological traits 

◆ Green algae are unicellular, colonial or multicellular and live in 

marine freshwater or moist terrestrial habitats 

● The majority are aquatic 

◆ Scientist hypothesized that land plant evolved from 

◆ multicellular green algae that lived in freshwater habitats 

➔ Similarities between green algae and land plants (the green algae 

most similar to land plants are the coleocahtophycae 

(coleochaetales) and charophyceae 

◆ Their chloroplast contain the photosynthetic pigments 

chlorophyll a and b and the accessory pigment b-carotene 

◆ They have similar arrangement of the internal, membrane 

bound sacs called thylakoids 

◆ Their cell walls, sperm and peroxisomes are similar in structure 

and composition 

◆ Their chloroplasts synthesize starch as a storage product 

➔ Major morphological difference among land plants 

◆ Land plants were put into three categories 

● Nonvascular plants  

○ Also called bryophytes 

○ Lack a vascular tissue 

◆ Specialized groups of cells that conduct 

water and nutrients from one part of the 

plant body to another. 

○ Example 

◆ Mosses 

● Seedless vascular plants 

○ Have vascular tissue  

○ Do not make seeds 

◆ They instead make microscopic spore that 

are carried by wind to new habitats 

○ Example 

◆ Ferns 

● Seed plants  

○ Have vascular tissue 

○ Make seed 

◆ Seed 
 ● consist s of an embryo and a store of 

nutritive tissue, surrounded by a tough 

protective layer 

○ Angiosperm ( a group of seed plants) 

◆ The flowering plant 

➔ Using the fossil record 

◆ The first green plants in the fossil record are green algae 

● Since they originate so far back they are hypothesized to 

be derived from green algae 

◆