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Eugenius Warming
Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming (November 3, 1841 - April 2, 1924), known as Eugen Warming, was a Danish botanist and a main founding figure of the scientific discipline of ecology. Warming wrote the first textbook (1895) on plant ecology, taught the first university course in ecology and gave the concept its meaning and content. “If one individual can be singled out to be honoured as the founder of ecology, Warming should gain precedence”[1]. Warming wrote a number of textbooks on botany, plant geography and ecology, which were translated to several languages and were immensely influential at their time and later. Most important were Plantesamfund and Haandbog i den systematiske Botanik. Additional recommended knowledge
LifeWarming was born on the small Wadden Sea island of Mandø as the only child of Jens Warming (1797-1844), parish minister, and Anna Marie von Bülow af Plüskow (1801-1863). After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother to her brother in Vejle in eastern Jutland. He attended high school at Ribe Katedralskole and commenced 1859 studies of natural history at the University of Copenhagen, but left university for three-and-a-half year (1863-1866) to act as secretary for the Danish palaeontologist Peter Wilhelm Lund, who lived and worked in Lagoa Santa, Brazil. After his return to Europe, he studied for a year under K.F.P. Martius, K.W. Nägeli and Ludwig Radlkofer in Munich and, in 1871, under J.L. von Hanstein in Bonn. Later in the same year (1871), he defended his Dr.Phil. thesis in Copenhagen. The professorship in botany at the University of Copenhagen became vacant with the death of A.S. Ørsted and Warming was the obvious candidate for a successor. However, he was passed over and the chair given to the older, but much less productive and original Ferdinand Didrichsen. Warming then became docent of botany at the University of Copenhagen, the polytechnic (Polyteknisk Læreanstalt) and the Pharmaceutical College 1873-1882. He became professor in botany at Stockholms högskola (later Stockholm University) 1882-1885. As the eldest professor, he was elected rector magnificus[2]. In 1885, he became professor in botany at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Copenhagen Botanical Garden and held these positions until his retirement in 1911. He was rector magnificus of the University of Copenhagen 1907-1908. He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters from 1878 to his death. As such, he served as a board member of the Carlsberg Foundation 1889-1921 and, because a biologist, on the board of the Carlsberg Laboratory. He also served on the board of the Geological Survey of Denmark 1895-1917. Eugen Warming was president for the ‘Association internationale des botanistes‘ (1913), honorary fellow of the Royal Society in London and honorary member of the Danish Botanical Society. He was a corresponding member of the botanical section of the French Academy of Sciences[3]. He was made Commander 1st Degree of the Order of the Dannebrog, Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and the Brazilian Imperial Order of the Rose. He is buried in Assistants Cemetery in Copenhagen. He married Johanne Margrethe Jespersen (known as Hanne Warming; 1850-1922) on November 10, 1871. They had eight children: Marie (1872-1947) married C.V. Prytz, Jens Warming (1873-1939), who became a professor in economy and statistics at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College, Fro (1875-1880), Povl (1877-1878), Svend Warming (1879-1982), engineer at Burmeister & Wain shipyard, Inge (1879-1893), Johannes (1882-1970), farmer, and Louise (1884-1964).[4] External link: Ancestors and descendents [5] Expeditions
In addition, shorter visits to the Alps and other proximate destinations. 'Plantesamfund' or 'Oecology of Plants'The book Plantesamfund was based on Warming’s lectures on plant geography at the University of Copenhagen. It gives an introduction to all major biomes of the world. Warming’s aim, and his major lasting impact on the development of ecology, was to explain how nature solved similar problems (drought, flooding, cold, salt, herbivory etc.) in similar way, despite using very different ‘raw material’ (species of different decent) in different regions of the world. This was a remarkably modern view – completely different from the merely descriptive floristic plant geography prevailing at his time.
The subtitle alludes to the title of the book Grundtræk af den almindelige Plantegeografi, published in 1822 (German edn 1823: Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie) by J.F. Schouw, co-founder of the scientific phytogeography. Plantesamfund was translated to German in 1896 as
A second, unauthorized, edition was issued in 1902 by Paul Graebner, who put his own name after Warming’s on the book’s frontispiece, despite no changes to the contents[1].
This edition was expanded in third and fourth editions:
A Polish translation of ’Plantesamfund’ (from Knoblauch’s German translation) appeared in 1900:
Two independent Russian (Moscow and St. Petersburg) editions appeared in 1901 and 1903
An extended and translated edition in English first apperead in 1909:
The German ecologist A. F. W. Schimper published ”Pflanzengeographie auf physiologisher Grundlage” in 1898. "This work not only covered much of the same ground as Warming did in 1895 and 1896 but in fact also leaned heavily on Warming’s research. Schimper (1898) quoted extensively from more than fifteen of Warming’s works and even reproduced Warming’s figures. Yet nowhere did Schimper acknowledge his profound debt to Warming, neither in the list of picture credits, nor in the acknowledgements section of the Vorwort, nor in his list of major sources, and not even in a footnote! ... Although replete with Warming’s data, it contains few ideas and did not advance ecology beyond what Warming had done earlier.”[1] Handbook of systematic botanyWarming, E. (1878) Haandbog i den systematiske Botanik (nærmest til Brug for Universitets-Studerende og Lærere). København. (2nd edn 1884; 3rd ed with Algae by N. Wille and fungi by E. Rostrup 1891). German edn 1890: Handbuch der systematischen Botanik by E. Knoblauch (2nd edn 1902, 3rd edn 1911, 4th edn 1929 all by M. Möbius). Russian edn 1893: Систематика растеній (from the 3rd Danish edn by S. Rostovzev and M. Golenkin; 2nd edn 1898). English edn 1895: A handbook of systematic botany (by M.C. Potter; several editions, latest 1932). The section on seed plants was later expanded and issue as
Warming Eug. Den almindelige Botanik: En Lærebog, nærmest til Brug for Studerende og Lærere [translated title: General Botany]. Kjøbenhavn, 1880. (2rd edn 1886; 3rd edn by Warming and Wilhelm Johannsen 1895; 4th edn by Warming and Johannsen 1900-01). Swedish edn 1882: Lärobok i allmän botanik (by Axel N. Lundström). German edn 1907-09: Lehrbuch der allgemeinen Botanik (from the 4th edn, by E. P. Meinecke). Berlin, Borntraeger. 667 pp. Warming Eug. (1900) Plantelivet: Lærebog i Botanik for Skoler og Seminarier [[translated title: Plant Life]]. København. (2nd edn 1902; 3rd edn 1905; 4th edn by C. Raunkiær and Warming 1908; 6th edn by E. Warming and Johs. Boye Petersen). English edn 1911: Plant Life - A Text-book of Botany for Schools and Colleges (from the 4th edn by M.M. Rehling and E.M. Thomas). London. Russian edn 1904: Растение и его жизнь (Началный учебник ботаники). (from the 2nd edn by L.M. Krečotovič and M. Golenkin). Moskva. These works show Warming as a skilful and dedicated pedagogue, whose presentation of the subject was useful far beyond his lecture theatre in Copenhagen. Further scientific works of E. Warming
Organogenetic studiesEarly on in Warming’s scientific career, the morphological-organogenetic point of was the leading principle in botanical research, and he soon became one of the most prominent workers in this branch of botany. His main works from the early period are his thesis on floral development in Euphorbia and on seed plant ovules. Warming's doctoral thesis (in Danish) dealt with ontogeny of the cyathia of Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae).
Part of the work was published in German the year before the thesis:
His studies on seed plant ovules were published in French as
All these works a still cited in scientific papers by scholars of botany every now and then.[7] Lagoa SantaHis early experience with vegetation in a tropical region was decisive for his future work. His collections from Lagoa Santa, 2600 plant species, of which some 370 turned out to be new to science[1], were treated in a monumental 40-volume and 1400-page work, Symbolæ ad Floram Brasiliæ centralis cognoscendam. For this work, Warming farmed out plant families to more than fifty plant taxonomists around Europe.
They were all published as volumes in the series ’Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den Naturhistoriske Forening i Kjøbenhavn’. Having finished the taxonomical work, Warming finally published his ecological study of plant communities in the Lagoa Santa area, with cerrado as the main vegetation type. Warming, E. (1892) Lagoa Santa: Et Bidrag til den biologiske Plantegeografi med en Fortegnelse over Lagoa Santas Hvirveldyr. Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter - Naturvidenskabelig og Mathematisk Afdeling, 6. Rk. vol. 6 (3): 153-488. Warming issued a lengthy summary in French (1893): Lagoa Santa – Étude de Geographie Botanique. Revue Générale de Botanique 5: 145-158, 209-233. Portuguese translation: Warming, Eugenio Lagoa Santa: Contribuição para a geographia phytobiologica, by Alberto Löfgren Belo Horizonte, 1908. This edition was augmented by the Brazilian ecologist M.G. Ferri with more recent research on the cerrado system and reissued as: Warming, E. & Ferri, M.G. (1973) Lagoa Santa – a vegetação de cerrados brasileiros. University of São Paulo. Life forms
These works may be seen as precursors of the life-form scheme of Warming’s pupil C. Raunkiær. However, Warming’s scheme was more complicated, taking other environmental factors than wintering into account, especially water/drought stress. Warming did not approve of what he saw as over-simplification in Raunkiær’s scheme. Warmings last published work was a renewed attempt to put all plant (including bacteria and algae) life forms into a system.
Structure and biology of arctic flowering plantsWarming, E. ed. (1908-1921) The structure and biology of Arctic flowering plants.
Greenland, Iceland and Faroe Islands
His favourite plant family - PodostemaceaeWarming, E (1881-1899) Familien Podostemaceae - Etudes sur la famille des Podostemacees.
Vegetation of Denmark
Warming’s influenceIt was Eugenius Warming's Lehrbuch der ökologischen Pflanzengeographie that must be considered as the starting point of self-conscious ecology. This book was the first to use physiological relations between plants and their environment, and in addition biotic interactions to explain the moulding of the assemblages that plant geographers had described and classified, and it would set up a research agenda for decades to come.[5] Despite the language barrier, Warming’s influence on the development of ecology is remarkable, not the least in Britain and the USA. The British ecologist Arthur Tansley was extremely influenced by reading ’Plantesamfund’ (or rather the 1896 German edition). Reading the book made him jump from anatomy to ecology[1]. Tansley used the book as textbook in a university course as early as 1899[6]. Similarly, Warming's book was decisive in forming the careers of North American naturalists like Henry Chandler Cowles[7]. Cowles' now classic studies of Lake Michigan sand dune plant communities were directly inspired by Warming's studies of Danish dunes[8]. A more unexpected avenue of influence went through the American sociologist Robert E. Park, who read Warming's Oecology of Plants and used the ideas of ecological succession as inspiration for a notion of succession in human communities - a human ecology[9]. Warming’s influence on later Scandinavian ecology was immense. Especially significant was his inspiration to Christen Raunkiær – his pupil and successor on the chair of botany at the University of Copenhagen. In addition, he had a direct influence of Danish research, scientific and other, for a couple of decades. After his appointment to the professorship in Copenhagen, he gradually took over Japetus Steenstrups power base, most notably as one of three members of the Carlsberg Foundation for 32 years. Thus, Warming had the upper hand in whom should be granted money and whom should not. Warming, religion and politicsWarming was raised in a Christian protestant home and he continued to be religious throughout his life. He accepted the evolution by descent of living beings, but believed that laws governing planets’ orbits and other laws governing organic evolution were god-given. In his popular book Nedstamningslæren (translated title: Evolution by descent), he concludes the section on hypotheses about the origin of life writing that, no matter what hypothesis is considered, it just “defers the grand question: how did life first come into existence, »in the beginning«? … as if we human beings thereby obtained understanding and explanation for anything at all, or circumvented the almighty power that, incomprehensibly to our mind, must have created matter, force, time and infinite space. Science has not disproven the Bible that says: »In the beginning God created …«!”[10]. Warming shared this view with many prominent contemporary naturalists, e.g. Alfred Russel Wallace[11]. Politically, Warming was national-conservative, Scandinavist and anti-Prussian. Warming was ableto visit his birth place only a few times in his life because Schleswig was conquered by Prussia and Austria in 1864 and (Northern Schleswig) returned to Denmark in 1920. Warming expressed support, in letters[4], for France in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. He made financial contributions to a secret fund that should support Danish-minded Schleswigian farmers in buying farms and prevent Germanization of Northern Schleswig. In a letter of 1898 to his son Jens, he regrets that the Højre – the conservative party – would lose an upcoming election and expresses concern that anarchy and socialism will eventually rule[12]. MiscellaneousThe Orchid genus Warmingia Rchb.f. and dozens of species (IPNI) has been named to his honour. Also Warming Land - a peninsula in northernmost Greenland. Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais has organized a series of 'Eugen Warming lectures in Evolutionary Ecology' since 1994. Biographies and obituaries
References
Categories: Danish algologists | Danish mycologists | Danish microbiologists |
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