As human activities are increasingly domesticating the Earth's ecosystems, new selection pressures are acting to produce winners and losers amongst our wildlife. With particular emphasis on plants, Briggs examines the implications of human influences on micro-evolutionary processes in different groups of organisms, including wild, weedy, invasive, feral, and endangered species. Using case studies from around the world, he argues that Darwinian evolution is ongoing. He considers how far it is possible to conserve endangered species and threatened ecosystems through management, and questions the extent to which damaged landscapes and their plant and animal communities can be precisely recreated or restored. Many of Darwin's ideas are highlighted, including his insights into natural selection, speciation, the vulnerability of rare organisms, the impact of invasive species, and the effects of climate change on organisms. An important text for students and researchers of evolution, conservation, climate change and sustainable use of resources.

Winner of the British Ecological Society Marsh Book of the Year Award 2011

'… a book that successfully offers broad and balanced coverage of Darwinian ideas as they operate today in plant populations. … The book is thought-provoking as advertised; it is also quite humbling.'

Source: Plant Science Bulletin

'David Briggs has produced a resoundingly fascinating overview of the effects of human influences on microevolutionary processes in a wide range of plants and habitats, ranging from weeds to rainforests … This is an important book, which should be devoured by students.'

Source: Bulletin of the British Ecological Society