Mitchell Bundick - Ecology of Eden Ch 1

Chapter 1, titled "The marriage of grass and man", discusses the alliance between humans and grasses dating back to prehistoric eras. This chapter was interesting to me as Eisenberg discussed this relationship from the perspective of grass as opposed to just humans. Additionally, it opened my eyes to the evolution of grass and how closely it was related to human activity. A small component of the chapter discussed how, after grass became dominant compared to trees, trees developed traits that were favorable to humans, such as the production of nuts and fruits. Eisenberg described this by saying trees "tried to ruin man's relationship with grass". Although fruits and nuts were appreciated by early humans, grass still prevailed over the majority of trees. The main theme of the chapter was the idea of coevolutionary alliance. The second wave of human population expansion was largely tied to the evolution of perennial grasses into annual grasses in response to humans implementing agriculture in their lifestyle. Eisenberg puts coevolutionary alliance into perspective when discussing annual grasses. He describes them as "sneaky and opportunistic," meaning that on their own, they are not particularly successful, but when they can develop a relationship with another species like humans, they are able to thrive. Another idea I believe Eisenberg wanted to begin the book with is that humans did not become what they are today because they are a superior species in all aspects; more so, they took advantage of alliances with other species. Along the same lines, human expansion didn't occur because they "invented" a new lifestyle in agriculture; it was the evolution of grass in response to human activity. Overall, this chapter provided me with a new perspective on the interactions between early humans and the natural world. 

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