Alfred Gabriel Nathorst

Alfred Gabriel Nathorst , also Alfréd , (born November 7, 1850 at Gut Väderbrunn near Nyköping , † January 20, 1921 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish botanist , geologist and polar explorer . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Nath. “Nathorst's interest in the natural sciences began at a young age, first devoting himself to botany and later to geology. The core of his work lies in paleobotany .

geologist

Nathorst's interest in geology was aroused by Charles Lyell 's Principles of Geology , which he visited in England in 1872. His purely geological work concerns the geology of Skåne and specifically the deposits of the Cambrian as well as the formation of hard coal and tectonic changes based on faults in the rock layers. In his work Om några förmodade växtfossil (About some suspected plant fossils) from 1874, he proves that these finds, which were previously described as fossils from older deposits (e.g. fossil algae ), are in fact not real fossils, but traces of the activity of prehistoric small animals were. Later his geological work dealt with the polar regions, the results of which he summarized at the geological congress of 1910 in Stockholm under the title Contributions to the geology of Bear Island, Spitsbergen and King Karl Land . He was responsible for the 2nd volume of the Swedish textbook Jordens historia (history of the earth), which was partly an adaptation of M. Neumayer's geological history and the work Sveriges geologi (Sweden's geology). The ammonite genus Nathorstites Böhm, 1904, is named after him.

botanist

Nathorst wrote about Arctic flora, but his work on paleobotany is even more extensive. Even as a young student in 1870, he found remains of plants (e.g. polar willow , white silver arum , dwarf birch ) in late glacial deposits in Skåne , which are no longer native to this area, but in the Swedish mountains or in the Arctic occur. Nathorst described a large number of plant fossils that he found in the coal deposits of Skåne. The rich material gave him the opportunity to conduct comprehensive and systematic morphological investigations. He also improved research methods, e.g. B. by using collodion to study the structure of the cuticle .

Polar cruises

Nathorst led several expeditions towards the Arctic Ocean . His first polar voyage took him to Spitsbergen in 1870 together with the engineer Hjalmar Wilander (1844–1891) . In 1882 he was back on Spitzbergen with the geologist Gerard De Geer. In 1883 he was second expedition leader after Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld on his Greenland expedition with the ship Sofia . In 1898 Nathorst was at Bear Island , Svalbard and König-Karl-Land and in 1899 again at Greenland, where further parts of the coast were mapped. The latter expeditions were also supposed to be on the lookout for the missing balloon expedition of Salomon August Andrée , but could not find any signs of life. The results of the last two trips were described in Två sommrar i Norra Ishavet (Two Summers in the Arctic Ocean). Today in Spitzbergen the Nathorst-Land (between Van Keulenfjorden and Van Mijenfjorden ), the Nathorstbreen (N. glacier) in the Van Keulenfjord, the Nathorstdalen north of the Isfjord and the Nathorstfjellet (N. berg) southwest of Longyearbyen are named after Nathorst. His name can also be found in numerous geographical names in East Greenland. There is also a Nathorst Land here , as well as the mountains Nathorst Bjerg, Nathorst Fjeld and Nathorst Tinde, the Nathorst Fjord and the Nathorst Glacier.

Museum man

Nathorst was appointed professor by royal decree in 1884. Until 1917 he was director of the paleobotanical department of the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet in Stockholm. Because of his good relationships with colleagues all over the world, he was able to provide the museum with a wealth of reference material. His own finds form the basis of the paleobotanical inventory of the facility.

Honors

In 1900 Nathorst was appointed a corresponding member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1912 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . He also belonged to the Royal Physiographical Society in Lund (since 1878), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (since 1885), the Russian Academy of Sciences (since 1901), the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala (since 1907), the Royal Science - and Literary Society in Gothenburg (since 1909) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (since 1920). The Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald , the University of Cambridge , the University of Oslo and the University of St Andrews have awarded him honorary doctorates .

In his honor the fossil genera Nathorstia Heer , Nathorstiana P.B. Richt. and Nathorstianella M.F.Glaessner & VRRao .

Fonts

To the Upper Devonian flora of Bear Island. Kongl. Svenska Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar; NF, 36,3: 60 S., Stockholm 1902
The Upper Devonian flora of the Ellesmere country . In: WC Brøgger et al. (Ed.): Report of the Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition in the Fram 1898-1902 . Vol. 1, Videnskabs-Selskabet, Kristiania 1904, pp. 1-22
Contributions to the geology of Bear Island, Svalbard and King Karl Land. 1910
To the Devon flora of western Norway. Bergen's museum årbok; 1914/15, No. 9, 34 pp. Bergen 1915
On the Paleozoic flora of the Arctic zone: Containing d. on Spitzbergen, on d. Bear Island & Paleozoic plants discovered by the Swedish expeditions on Novaja Zemlja. Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademien, Handlingar, Ny följd., 26 (4): 80 p., Stockholm 1894.

literature

Albert Charles Seward: Alfred Gabriel Nathorst . In: Botanical Gazette 71 (6) June 1921, pp. 462-465; online at JSTOR
Gösta Hjalmar Liljequist: High Latitudes. A History of Swedish Polar Travels and Research . Stockholm 1993, 608 pp.

Web links

Author entry and list of the described plant names for Alfred Gabriel Nathorst at the IPNI
Lexicon entry in Nordisk familjebok (1876–1926) (Swedish)

Individual evidence

^ Zoological Society of London
↑ Anthony K. Higgins: Catalog of place names in northern East Greenland (PDF; 9.4 MB). In: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010), ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 . P. 263 (English)
↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .

personal data
SURNAME	Nathorst, Alfred Gabriel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nathorst, Alfréd Gabriel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swedish botanist, geologist and polar explorer
DATE OF BIRTH	November 7, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH	near Nyköping
DATE OF DEATH	January 20, 1921
Place of death	Stockholm

[1] Zoological Society of London

[2] Anthony K. Higgins: Catalog of place names in northern East Greenland (PDF; 9.4 MB). In: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin 21, 2010), ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 . P. 263 (English)

[Burkhardt_2018-3] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .