Introduction to Lakes and Reservoirs - Hydro-Environmental Analysis: Freshwater Environments - page 278

Handbuch der Seenkunde , in 1901 (Figure 9.3). He is widely considered to be the father of limnol-
ogy and is the irst person to have used the term limnology in a publication (CGER 1996). His con-
tributions included a study of the hitherto unexplained movement of lake waters, known as seiches,
and the discovery of density currents.
In 1871, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was established in the United States. In
1887, Forbes published The Lake as a Microcosm , describing a lake as an ecological unit in balance
with its surroundings. In 1906, Birge and Juday began studies on Wisconsin lakes (Lake Mendota)
(Figure 9.4).
In the 1920s, Thienemann and Naumann classiied lakes based on their chemistry, production,
and fauna as oligotrophic, eutrophic, and dystrophic, respectively. To honor their contributions to
the ield, each year the International Society of Limnology bestows the Einar Naumann-August
Thienemann Medal, which is considered the highest honor that can be bestowed internationally for
outstanding scientiic contributions to limnology (Figure 9.5).
In 1928, G. Evelyn Hutchinson joined the faculty of Yale University, where he was a profes-
sor for 43 years (Figure 9.6). Hutchinson was born in Cambridge, UK, in 1903. He studied at
Cambridge College and became a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in
1925. Subsequently, he went to Yale University. While he never earned a PhD, over a 36-year period
he published the four-volume (with more than 3500 combined pages) Treatise of Limnology , con-
sidered one of the most comprehensive studies of limnology in existence (Hutchinson 1957, 1667,
1975, 1993).
G.E. Hutchinson was responsible for the introduction of numerous ecological and limnological
concepts, such as the “paradox of the plankton” (Hutchinson 1961), which will be discussed in a
later chapter. His seminal paper “Homage to Santa Rosalia or why are there so many animals?”
(Hutchinson 1959) is considered the irst attempt to deal with modern concepts of biological diver-
sity. He is generally considered to be the “father of modern limnology” and has also been recog-
nized as the “father of ecology.” His contributions are documented in the 2010 book G. Evelyn
Hutchinson and the Invention of Modern Ecology (Slack 2010).
FIGURE 9.4 Edward A. Birge and Chancey Juday with a plankton trap circa 1917. (From Wisconsin
Historical Society, WHS-3176. With permission.)