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Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Publications 12-2017 Antecedent Wetland Ecologists - German and Austrian in the Ninetieth Century Arnold van der Valk Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/eeob_ag_pubs Part of the History Commons, and the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ eeob_ag_pubs/299. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Antecedent Wetland Ecologists - German and Austrian in the Ninetieth Century Abstract Please note that this is the first of a series in WSP. Many of the people, and even institutions, who influenced the development of the wetland science as a field have recently died or closed, and many other pioneering wetland scientists have retired or will soon retire. Given this, we would like to capture the early history of our science by getting the people who created it to write about their reasons for becoming wetland scientists and their contributions to the field. This series of articles will focus on two major topics: (1) the contributions of major scientists working in wetlands to the development of wetland science, and (2) the roles of major wetland institutions and organizations in the development of wetland science. Each article will highlight major advances, organizational and/or intellectual, that have shaped wetland science in the United States and around the world. Disciplines Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | History | Life Sciences | Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Comments This article is published as van der Valk, A. G. 2017. Antecedent wetland ecologists – German and Austrian in the nineteenth century. Wetland Science and Practice 34:112-117. Posted with permission. This article is available at Iowa State University Digital Repository: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/eeob_ag_pubs/299 HISTORY OF WETLAND SCIENCE Antecedent Wetland Ecologists - German and Austrian in the Ninetieth Century Arnold van der Valk1, Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA lease note that this is the first of a series in WSP. Many communities being in equilibrium due to the interaction of Pof the people, and even institutions, who influenced the their constituent species, unless they are disturbed. Heinrich development of the wetland science as a field have recently Schenck pioneered the study of aquatic plants and their ad- died or closed, and many other pioneering wetland scien- aptations for life under water. All three raised the visibility tists have retired or will soon retire. Given this, we would of wetlands and wetland plants in the scientific community like to capture the early history of our science by getting in the nineteenth century. the people who created it to write about their reasons for becoming wetland scientists and their contributions to the INTRODUCTION th field. This series of articles will focus on two major topics: As originally formulated in the 19 century by Ernst (1) the contributions of major scientists working in wet- Haeckel (1834-1919) in his Generelle Morphologie, ecol- lands to the development of wetland science, and (2) the ogy was the study of organisms and their interactions in roles of major wetland institutions and organizations in the their natural environment, as opposed to their study in the development of wetland science. Each article will high- laboratory (Haeckel 1866). In other words, ecology is the light major advances, organizational and/or intellectual, study of organisms in nature. Haeckel, an early supporter of that have shaped wetland science in the United States and Darwin, saw it as a new, much needed science that focused around the world. on the study of natural selection. For an account of the We have invited a number of distinguished wetland development of an ecological perspective among thinkers scientists to contribute articles in the series. We also like interested in natural history in the early nineteenth century to invite anyone interested in the history of wetland sci- like Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin, and many ence to submit an article for this series. We are particularly of their contemporaries, see Donald Worster’s Nature’s interested in accounts of the history of wetland science Economy (1977). outside of the United States. If you would like to contrib- Ecology did not develop in a systematic way, however, ute an article to this series, please contact either of the edi- but as an accumulation over time of numerous, disparate tors of this series, Arnold van der Valk, Ecology, Evolution studies done on a variety of organisms (algae, invertebrates, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA plants, birds, fish, mammals, etc.) in a variety of environ- 50011 ([email protected]) or Gordon Goldsborough, De- mental contexts (grasslands, forests, lakes, oceans, rivers, partment of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, wetlands, etc.). From its inception, ecology has always Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada (gordon.goldsborough@ consisted of a myriad of subdisciplines often focused on a umanitoba.ca). specific type of ecosystem such as grassland ecology, forest ecology, tropical ecology, limnology, etc. or on a group of ABSTRACT organisms such as animal ecology, insect ecology, plant The ideas of three nineteenth-century German-speaking, ecology, etc. Because they were typically trained as either academic scientists (Anton Kerner, Karl Möbius, and botanists or zoologists, most pioneering ecologists in the Heinrich Schenck) greatly influenced the development late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries thought of them- of wetland ecology. Anton Kerner in his landmark book, selves as either plant ecologists or animal ecologists, if they Das Pflanzenleben der Donaulaender, described hydrarch thought of themselves as ecologists at all. succession as an orderly process and also discussed the How did the science of wetland ecology develop? Wet- implications of large-scale drainage of wetlands in Hungary land ecology is clearly a subdiscipline of ecology. As I will on regional climate. Studies of oyster beds by Karl Möbius demonstrate in a later installment in this series, wetland resulted in the formulation of the concept of ecological ecology did not become a self-conscious science, i.e., a sci- ence with a recognized name with which scientists identi- 1 Corresponding author: [email protected], 515-294-4374 fied themselves, until the 1970s. Nevertheless, prior to the 1970s, there were many scientists who worked exclusively, 112 Wetland Science & Practice December 2017 primarily, or occasionally on wetlands or wetland organ- In 1863, Kerner published his most influential book, isms. Their studies collectively form the basis for what Das Pflanzenleben der Donaulaender or The Plant Life of came to be called wetland ecology. the Danube Basin. It was translated into English by Henry At this point, I would like to make an important distinc- S. Conard (1951) as The Background of Plant Ecology. In tion between what have been called protoecologists and the Foreword to his translation, Conard described Kerner’s what I will call antecedent ecologists. Protoecologists are book as the “immediate and direct parent of all later works individuals who made observations that in retrospect would on Plant Ecology.” This book made Kerner famous in Eu- be considered to fall within the science of ecology. Such rope, and it is still considered to be a landmark work on the observations can be found in numerous writings from clas- classification of vegetation (Conard 1951, McIntosh 1985). sical antiquity to those of Darwin. Frank Egerton’s book “The horizontal and vertical assorting of large plant Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel (2012) provides a communities is by no means accidental in spite of its appar- detailed account of many protoecologists and their obser- ent lack of order. It follows certain immutable laws. Every vations. Antecedent ecologists are individuals in a variety plant has its place, its time, its functions, and its meaning. of disciplines, mostly scientific, whose research work In every zone, plant life has been developing through an or writings on organisms, populations, communities, or inconceivably long time according to the same pattern to ecosystems created an interest in ecology as an object of build up its green structure over naked earth. In every zone scientific study and/or who raised the visibility of ecology the plants are gathered into definite groups, which appear both within the scientific community and outside it. Most, either developing or as finished communities, but never but not all antecedent ecologists were academic scientists, transgress the orderly structure and correct composition of but some were not scientists at all. their kind.” (Translation from Conard 1951). According In this paper, I am going to examine the contributions to Kerner, it is the role of plant geographers to define and of three nineteenth-century German-speaking, anteced-

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