Arthur Tansley

Sir Arthur Tansley
Arthur Tansley in the 1890s
Born
Arthur George Tansley

(1871-08-15)15 August 1871
London, England
Died25 November 1955(1955-11-25) (aged 84)
Grantchester, England
Known forNew Phytologist, British Ecological Society, Ecosystem concept
Spouse(s)Edith, Lady Tansley (née Chick)
AwardsLinnean Medal (1941)
Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
Notable studentsAlexander Watt

Sir Arthur George Tansley FLS, FRS[1] (15 August 1871 – 25 November 1955) was an English botanist and a pioneer in the science of ecology.[2]

Educated at Highgate School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, Tansley taught at these universities and at Oxford, where he served as Sherardian Professor of Botany until his retirement in 1937. Tansley founded the New Phytologist in 1902 and served as its editor until 1931.[1] He was a pioneer of the science of ecology in Britain, being heavily influenced by the work of Danish botanist Eugenius Warming,[3] and introduced the concept of the ecosystem into biology.[4] Tansley was a founding member of the first professional society of ecologists, the Central Committee for the Survey and Study of British Vegetation, which later organised the British Ecological Society, and served as its first president and founding editor of the Journal of Ecology.[5][6] Tansley also served as the first chairman of the British Nature Conservancy.[2]

Tansley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1915, and knighted in 1950.[7]

The New Phytologist publishes regular Tansley Reviews, while the New Phytologist Trust awards a Tansley Medal, both named in his honour.[8]

  1. ^ a b c Godwin, H. (1957). "Arthur George Tansley. 1871–1955". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 3: 227–246. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1957.0016. JSTOR 769363.
  2. ^ a b Cooper, W. S. (1957). "Sir Arthur Tansley and the Science of Ecology". Ecology. 38 (4): 658–659. Bibcode:1957Ecol...38..658C. doi:10.2307/1943136. JSTOR 1943136.
  3. ^ Tansley, A. G. (1947). "The Early History of Modern Plant Ecology in Britain". Journal of Ecology. 35 (1): 130–137. Bibcode:1947JEcol..35..130T. doi:10.2307/2256503. JSTOR 2256503.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Willis1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Godwin, H. (1958). "Sir Arthur George Tansley, F. R. S. 1871–1955". Journal of Ecology. 46 (1): 1–8. JSTOR 2256899.
  6. ^ Godwin, H. (1977). "Sir Arthur Tansley: The Man and the Subject: The Tansley Lecture, 1976". Journal of Ecology. 65 (1): 1–26. Bibcode:1977JEcol..65....1G. doi:10.2307/2259059. JSTOR 2259059.
  7. ^ "Major events in the life of Arthur Tansley". New Phytologist Trust. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  8. ^ Ian Woodward, F.; Hetherington, A. M. (2010). "The New Phytologist Tansley Medal". New Phytologist. 186 (2): 263–264. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2010.03247.x. PMID 20409180.