Conradin Burga

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Conradin Adolf Burga (born October 13, 1948 ) is a Swiss biogeographer. He is Professor of Physical Geography and was Professor of Biogeography at the Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich from 1996 to 2013 . Burga is currently considered one of the most renowned German-speaking biogeographers. Among other things, he heads the working group “Biomonitoring / Vegetation Dynamics / Global Change” in the Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft .

Burga studied geography, geology, chemistry, botany, petrography, mineralogy, mathematics and palaeontology from 1970 to 1976 and obtained a diploma in geography at the Institute of Geography at the University of Zurich in 1976. From 1976 to 1979 he studied botany, worked as an assistant and received his doctorate in 1979 at the Institute for Botany at the University of Basel.

From 1980 to 1986 he researched and taught as a senior assistant and from 1986 also as a private lecturer in physical geography at the Institute of Geography at the University of Zurich. In 1987 he worked as a research assistant at the Botany School (Sub-Department of Quaternary Research) at the University of Cambridge and completed his habilitation with "Glacier and Vegetation History of the South Ratian Alps since the Late Ice Age" at the University of Zurich. From 1988 he worked as a research assistant and from 1996 to 2013 as a professor in physical geography (biogeography) at the Institute of Geography at the University of Zurich.

Burga is a specialist in plant geography / biogeography and Quaternary paleo-ecology, especially of high mountain ecosystems in the European Alps (vegetation dynamics, flora, vegetation and climate history; pollen research).

He is Vice-President of the Reinhold-Tüxen Society, Hanover, founder and chairman of the international working group 'Biomonitoring / Vegetation Dynamics / Global Change', Vice-President of the Association of Geography Switzerland (ASG) and a member of various national and international commissions. In 1998 he published the first synthesis of Swiss vegetation and climate history during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. He led various mapping and monitoring projects (e.g. glacier forelands of the Swiss Alps, vegetation map of the Upper Engadine). He is a member of the international committee of editors of Mountain Research and Development and of Gredleriana (Journal des Naturhistorisches Museum Süd-Tirol, Italy), chief editor of the Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Zurich (founded 1746) and a member of the library commission of the Zurich Central Library 2004-2018 and since 2012 board member "Schatzinsel Alp Flix".

In his private life he is also involved in the musical field, e.g. B. as founding president of the Academic Choir Zurich (ACZ, founded in 1981).

literature

Selected publications (peer reviewed) from 1999 to 2011:

  • Burga, CA 1999: Vegetation development on the glacier forefield Morteratsch (Switzerland). 1999. Applied Vegetation Science 2, 17-24.
  • Burga, CA & A. Kratochwil (eds.) 2001: Biomonitoring - General and Applied Aspects on a Regional and Global Scale . Tasks for Vegetation Science, 35, 248 pp. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht.
  • Burga, CA & E. Hussendörfer 2001: Vegetation history of Abies alba Mill. (Silver fir) in Switzerland - pollen analytical and genetic surveys related to aspects of vegetation history of Picea abies (L.) H. Karsten (Norway spruce) . Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 10 (3), 151-159.
  • Walther, G.-R., CA Burga & P. ​​Edwards 2001 (eds.): “Fingerprints” of Climate Change. Adapted Behavior and Shifting Species Ranges . Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, New York etc., 329 pp.
  • Burga, CA, R. Frauenfelder, J. Ruffet, M. Hölzle & A. Kääb 2004: Vegetation on Alpine rock glacier surfaces: a contribution to abundance and dynamics on extreme plant habitats . Flora 199 (6): 505-515.
  • Walther, G.-R., S. Beißner & CA Burga 2005: Trends in the upward shift of alpine plants . Journal of Vegetation Science 16, 541-548.
  • Burga, CA, E. Frei, R. Reinalter & G.-R. Walther 2007: New data on the monitoring of alpine plants in the Engadine . Ber. d. Reinh.-Tüxen-Ges. 19, 37-43.
  • Vittoz, P., J. Bodin, S. Ungricht, CA Burga & G.-R. Walther 2008: One century of vegetation change on the Isla Persa, a nunatak in the Bernina massif in the Swiss Alps . Journal of Vegetation Science 19, 1-16.
  • Burga, CA, Krüsi, B., Egli, M., Wernli, M., Elsener, S., Ziefle, M., Fischer, T. & Mavris, C. 2010: Plant succession and soil development on the foreland of the Morteratsch glacier (Pontresina, Switzerland): Straight forward or chaotic? . Flora, 205, 561-576.
  • Egli, M., Wernli, M., Burga, CA, Kneisel, Ch., Mavris, C., Valboa, G., Mirabella, A., Plötze, M. & Haeberli, W. 2011: Fast but temporally scattered smectite -formation in the proglacial area Morteratsch: an evaluation using GIS . Geoderma, 164, 11-21.

Selected books and maps:

  • Burga, CA & Perret, R. 1998: Vegetation and Climate in Switzerland since the Younger Ice Age . Ott Verlag, Thun. 805 pp.
  • Burga CA & Kratochwil, A. (eds.) 2001: Biomonitoring: General and Applied Aspects on Regional and Global Scales . Tasks for vegetation science 35. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London. 242 pp.
  • Walther, G.-R., Burga, CA & Edwards, PJ 2001: “Fingerprints” of Climate Change. Adapted Behavior and Shifting Species Ranges . Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London. 329 pp.
  • Burga, CA, Klötzli, F. & Grabherr, G. (eds.) 2004: Mountains of the Earth. Landscape, climate, flora . Ulmer, Stuttgart. 505 pp.
  • Burga, CA & Zanola S. (eds.) 2007: Madagascar - hot spot of biodiversity. Excursion report and brief country studies . Series of publications on Physical Geography, Soil Science and Biogeography, 55th Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich, Zurich. 201 pp.
  • Burga, CA 2010: Upper Engadine vegetation map (Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland ). Geographical Institute of the University of Zurich. Orell Füssli Kartographie AG, Zurich. Language output: German, English, Romansh.
  • Burga, CA (ed.) 2013: Oswald Heer (1809-1883). Paleobotanist, entomologist, founder personality . Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 511 pp.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burga, Conradin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burga, Conradin Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss biogeographer
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1948