Erwin Mayr

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Erwin Mayr (born June 18, 1899 in Salzburg , † July 13, 1969 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian seed researcher , plant breeder and grain ecologist . His main research interest was the conservation of alpine cereals - local varieties as genetic material for plant breeding.

Life

Erwin Mayr, son of a librarian, attended the state high school in Salzburg and passed the school leaving examination there in 1918 . He then studied at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna . There the contact with the plant geneticist Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg determined his further professional career. In 1922 he obtained his diploma and in the same year he received his doctorate in soil culture with a dissertation on cereal cultivation and cereal varieties in the Salzach valley in Salzburg .

After working for several years as an agriculture teacher , Mayr joined the Federal Institute for Crop Production and Seed Testing in Vienna as a specialist in 1927 . During the following years he led an inventory of the alpine cereal - landraces through and assessed their suitability for plant breeding. With the results of these studies , he completed his habilitation in 1939 at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna in the field of special crop cultivation with a special focus on cereal cultivation . Until 1945 he held lectures at this university on cereal cultivation in high mountain areas and on cereal varieties .

During the Second World War, Mayer had already set up a test station for the cultivation of local grain varieties that were worth preserving on a piece of land in Rinn (near today's Triendl settlement ) made available by the Tyrolean state government in 1941 . From 1945 to 1964 he headed this station, which later became the State Institute for Plant Breeding and Seed Testing in Rinn (today at the LLA Imst ). From 1945 he was also a visiting professor at the University of Innsbruck , where he received the Venia legendi for agricultural botany in 1951 . In 1958 he was awarded the title of adjunct professor .

The main focus of Mayr's research was the preservation of local grain varieties as a gene source for plant breeding. His most important achievement is probably the establishment of one of the most important gene banks for old alpine grain varieties, today part of the gene bank of the state of Tyrol . In this context he always dealt with questions of grain ecology , especially with the influence of climatic factors on the yield of the local varieties. So the regional aspects of crop production were also given his attention. In several articles he described and mapped grain growing areas in Carinthia and Tyrol. The text 25 Years of the State Institute for Plant Breeding and Seed Testing , published by him in 1964, provides the best overview of his research work .

Publications

  • Grain cultivation and types of grain in the Salzach valley . Dissertation University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 1922.
  • The local grain varieties and grain cultivation in the Salzach Valley and its side valleys . Scholle-Verlag Vienna 1928 = Research reports from the Federal Institute for Plant Production and Seed Testing in Vienna, issue 1.
  • The local grain varieties, an unrivaled natural treasure of our Alps . In: Writings of the Association for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge in Vienna, vol. 79, 1939, pp. 1–20.
  • The grain cultivation zones, cultivation and harvest times and the crop rotations in Carinthia . In: Festschrift for Erwin Aichinger on his 60th birthday. Edited by Erwin Janchen. Springer-Verlag Vienna 1954, Vol. 2, pp. 1255-1268.
  • Investigations into the influence of climatic elements, in particular global radiation, on the duration of vegetation and the yield of summer grain . In: Journal of Plant Breeding Vol. 49, 1963, pp. 243-252.
  • 25 years of the State Institute for Plant Breeding and Seed Testing in Rinn . University publishing house Wagner Innsbruck 1964 = Schlern-Schriften Vol. 236.

literature

  • Gustav Wunderlich: Erwin Mayr in memory . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 131, 1970, pp. 86-88 (with picture).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Bettina Bosin: “The“ invention ”of seeds in Austria. An Actor - Network - Analysis of the Seed Act of 1934. “ Diploma thesis Uni Wien, September 2008, p. 7 u. 21 ( pdf , univie.ac.at).
  2. ↑ Seeds and old varieties. tirol.gv.at »Subject Agriculture & Rural Areas .
personal data
SURNAME Mayr, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian seed researcher, plant breeder and grain ecologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1969
Place of death innsbruck