Part 57: Aspects of Limnology in America, 1930s to about 1990, Led by Hutchinson and Hasler
Year: 2016
Type: article
Abstract: Part 50 described the founding of limnology and its worldwide development, from 1870s to 1920s (Egerton 2014a).E. A. Birge and Chancy Juday in Wisconsin and August Thienemann in Germany remained active after the 1920s (Juday and Hasler 1946:472-480, Thienemann 1959:78-489, Frey 1963b, Elster 1974:13-19, Egerton 2008b, 2015a:37-39), but their stories are not continued here, though their influence is mentioned.I am unable to survey fully the history of all American limnology, 1930-1990, but here are aspects of it.The detailed Limnology in North America (Frey 1963a) is a valuable resource for part of this period and includes Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands.It is mostly a survey of American limnological knowledge, not history of limnological science.Three directories of biological stations, compiled by U.S. biologists, are useful, though marine stations outnumber freshwater ones: Homer Jack ( 1945), Biological Field Stations of the World is quite brief and includes a few stations not aquatically focused; Robert Hiatt (1954), Directory of Hydrobiological Laboratories and Personnel in North America is the most detailed; Hiatt (1963), World Directory of Hydrobiological and Fisheries Institutions.The American Institute of Biological Sciences (2010) has reprinted from BioScience a booklet (ii + 72 pages) of articles-one from 2002, six from 2009-of historical relevance, entitled Topics in Biological Field Stations.Laura Tydecks et al. (2016) compiled worldwide data on biological field stations and have published a summary of their findings, giving a web site for the details."Mac" McIntosh (1985:124-127) briefly surveyed history of limnology in The Background of Ecology, four pages of which concern the period of this part 57.Part 57 uses the careers of G(eorge) Evelyn Hutchinson (1903Hutchinson ( -1991) ) and Arthur D(avis) Hasler to illustrate pathways in American limnology, 1930American limnology, -1990. .Hutchinson's contributions to population ecology were briefly described in part 55 (Egerton 2015b:595).He was a leading ecologist of the 1900s and Hasler was the illustrious head of limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.A survey of Hutchinson's contributions to limnology is facilitated by his own autobiographical The Kindly Fruits of the Earth (1979), Nancy Slack's excellent biography (2010), and by an anthology of Hutchinson's most notable publications (Hutchinson 2010).For Hasler, there is his own survey of Wisconsin limnology, 1940-1961 (Hasler 1963a), a volume commemorating a century of limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Beckel 1987:31-56, + illustrations on 63-74, Egerton 1987a), a biographical memoir for the National Academy of Sciences (Likens 2002), and two biographical summaries (Carpenter and Kitchell 2001, Egerton 2008a).Hutchinson (1947-1948) and Hasler (1949-1950) served as presidents of a newly organized American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, and they were the first limnologists elected to the National Academy of Sciences.Hasler was ESA president in 1961.
DOI: 10.1002/bes2.1242
Author: Frank N. Egerton
Institution: University of Wisconsin–Parkside
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid:
OpenAlex ID: W2463040185