Resolution of Respect Howard Thomas Odum (1924–2002) Atmosphere, Benthos, Canopy, Di- versity, Emergy with an “m”: this list could wend through the entire alphabet of ecology and not exhaust the breadth of some 300 publications by Howard Thomas Odum over the past 57 years. How many ecologists have delved sub- stantively into freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, publishing land- mark papers on each? Although he is known by today’s generation primarily as one profoundly involved in his unique brand of ecological economics, H. T. Odum’s deep roots in ecological science merit examination, revealing his appreciation for organism–environment interactions and the larger systems of which human society is but a part. His first papers, published before graduate school, dealt with bird migra- tion and navigation (Odum 1947, 1948). World War II interrupted his under- graduate education and he soon gained H. T. Odum’s first faculty position led to their joint receipt of the Mercer a solid foundation in abiotic sciences was at the University of Florida, where Award in 1955. courtesy of the U.S. Army. As a junior he received a grant of $20,000 for a Those early years at Florida were officer, he received training in meteo- four-year study of energy and material spent doing more than fieldwork. It was rology, which led to presidential recog- flows. This was in the early 1950s, and here that H. T. Odum collaborated with nition when he developed a system for an ecosystem perspective was just an engineer, Richard Pinkerton (whose predicting the formation of hurricanes beginning to trickle into ecology. He own career was shortened by an early in the Atlantic. After the war, he com- chose freshwater springs as his study death). Together they wrote the paper pleted his B.S. in zoology (Phi Beta system, and the choice proved sound: that became one of Odum’s greatest Kappa, University of North Carolina– relatively constant oxygen, geochem- legacies: more than any other theme, Chapel Hill) and moved to Yale for doc- istry, temperature, and clarity; readily the theory of maximum power (Odum toral work under G. Evelyn Hutchinson. measured flow rates; rooted, therefore and Pinkerton 1955), remained central His studies in New Haven included a easy to census, producers; easily iden- to his thinking throughout his career. heavy dose of geology and geochemistry, tified boundaries and inputs; relatively Although he invariably shared credit as he unraveled the global strontium large and taxonomically known con- for the theory with Pinkerton, Alfred cycle. His dissertation was something sumers; and biogeochemically impor- Lotka, and Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a of a harbinger, involving details of stron- tant microorganisms that formed sta- careful reading of the literature reveals tium uptake and kinetics at the organ- tionary, identifiable mats. The results that the contribution was quintessential ism level, as well as a global perspec- of his monograph on Silver Springs H. T. Odum. tive: strontium-containing sediments were (Odum 1957) are still widely cited in After that initial stint in Florida, H. compressed, subsided, and churned into textbooks to illustrate energy and mate- T. Odum’s academic odyssey took him the crust, eventually to reappear upon rial flows in an ecosystem. to Duke University (1955–1957), where uplift and volcanism (Odum 1951). He Another hallmark of his early ap- he continued his research on aquatic had a trait common to many Hutchinson pointment at Florida was the work that ecosystems, perfecting approaches for students of being able to focus simulta- he and his brother Eugene P. Odum estimating whole-system photosynthe- neously on the fine detail and the big conducted on Enewetak Atoll, in the sis and respiration using microcosms, picture, both temporally and spatially, Marshall Islands (Odum and Odum mesocosms, small streams, ponds, and without losing sight of either. 1955). That study of reef metabolism estuarine embayments. From there he January 2003 13 moved to the University of Texas (in plinary group of scholars who ran a cypress swamps as natural treatment 1957) as director of its Institute of Ma- graduate program in ecology, H. T. Odum plants for sewage (Ewel and Odum 1985). rine Sciences at Port Aransas. Capital- held appointments in three departments: He also headed a major analysis of the izing on the metabolic work on flowing zoology, botany, and environmental sci- South Florida ecological crisis, a quar- waters that he had conducted in Florida, ences and engineering. Two research top- ter of a century before Congress allo- North Carolina, and the Pacific, he con- ics received considerable attention while cated billions in its attempt to remedy the tinued to focus on whole systems, this he was in Chapel Hill. One was ecosys- situation. While at Florida, he founded time in the Gulf of Mexico. By now tem self-design, a topic he and his stu- the university’s Center for Wetlands and well known for his willingness to tackle dents explored using a variety of micro- its Center for Environmental Policy. large-scale ecological assessments, it cosms and species-enrichment experi- During the second half of H. T. was here that he enticed the military to ments, including a snail-like tank that Odum’s career, he devoted an increas- provide a helicopter to deploy a huge had flowing water and a nutrient source ing proportion of his efforts to broader drop net over the Gulf, a fish-censusing at its center (thus creating a fertility issues of society and nature, address- feat that has never been repeated (Jones continuum), and was heavily seeded with ing the topic primarily through his own et al. 1963). Many of his most impor- all manner of organisms (Beyers and brand of ecological economics, based tant contributions during this period Odum 1993). The other was computer upon the true energy costs of policies were published in the Proceedings of simulation of relatively simple but in- and practices (e.g., Odum 1988, 1996). the Institute of Marine Sciences, includ- sight-yielding mini-models, crafted af- Feeling the need to express his ideas ing studies of bay metabolism (e.g., ter real-world systems and based upon fully, he published less in the tradi- Odum and Hoskin 1958, Odum et al. the energy flow symbol set that he de- tional peer-reviewed journals, while 1963) as well as innovative perspec- veloped and used throughout his career. writing more books—some 15 at last tives on the relationships among light Howard T. Odum was a staunch pa- count. It was, in part, because of their intensity, productivity, and chlorophyll triot (but never subject to political ma- devotion and contributions to the big density (Odum et al. 1958). nipulation), and although he was heavily issues of society and nature that the From Texas he migrated in 1963 to engaged in teaching, writing, and re- brothers H. T. and E. P. Odum shared the University of Puerto Rico and the search during his tenure at UNC and two major international awards: the Prix Puerto Rico Nuclear Center. The draw beyond, he also served his country gen- de la Vie (in 1976), and the Crafoord was funding for an unprecedented study erously. He tried to bring reason and Prize (in 1987). The jury is still out of a tropical rain forest, ostensibly to science to some of the emotional de- on the central concept to which H. T. assess the consequences of exposing a bates surrounding the aftermath of the Odum was most wedded in recent complex ecosystem to a stress (in this Viet Nam war, for example. As a mem- years—his emergy analysis—but whether case, radiation from a cesium source), ber of a blue-ribbon team appointed to or not it becomes the standard cur- but more importantly, the unparalleled address the ecological consequences of rency, the amount of creative thought opportunity to know a rain forest struc- herbicide use by the military in the that went into its development must turally and functionally to a level of mangroves of Viet Nam, he looked for- instill admiration in all. detail never before attempted. Marshal- ward, focusing on recovery, rather than Howard T. Odum was exception- ing dozens of collaborators, over the backward, focusing on damage. He also ally fortunate to have been accompa- next four years he and his co-workers served proudly as a member of Presi- nied through his adult life by four tre- looked at nearly every ecological vari- dent Lyndon Johnson’s Panel on World mendously supportive women. Virginia, able in that rain forest. It is not surpris- Food Supply, which led to a long, insight- whom he married in 1947, was a student ing that large-scale ecosystem metabo- ful paper on the energetics of food pro- of English literature and the mother of lism was again part of the plan; this duction systems (Odum 1967). their two daughters, Anne Odum (of time he constructed a giant, open-topped In 1970, like the migratory birds Gainesville) and Mary Logan (of An- cylinder to enclose a sizable chunk of and the strontium with which he began, chorage, Alaska). Virginia died in 1973. rain forest. Participants had to agree to H. T. Odum returned to his starting In 1974, Howard T. and Elisabeth C. withhold publication for a summary vol- place and accepted a Graduate Research Odum partnered in marriage and in ume (Odum and Pigeon 1970). Thirty- Professorship in the Department of En- careers that were to last for the rest of two years later, that award-winning tome, vironmental Engineering Sciences at the his life, which ended on 11 September weighing in at 4.6 kg and some 1660 University of Florida, thus closing his 2002, at age 78.