Heinz Löffler (Limnologist)

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Heinz Löffler (born March 17, 1927 in Vienna , † October 13, 2006 in Vienna) was an Austrian limnologist and member of the Academy of Sciences .

Live and act

Heinz Löffler, who came from a Viennese family, studied natural sciences with a focus on zoology at the University of Vienna after the Second World War .

With colleagues like Rupert Riedl and Wolfgang Wieser he carried out research expeditions in the Mediterranean. With Ferdinand Starmühlner , Jens Hemsen and Alfred Kaltenbach, who later became head of the Insecta varia collection at the Natural History Museum , he undertook a research trip to Persia in 1949 and 1950 with the support of Franz Ruttner , where he carried out investigations on the steppe and Undertook salt lakes, which became the basis for his doctoral thesis. He received support from George Evelyn Hutchinson on his American tours . The work The thermal classification of lakes in 1956 emerged from this collaboration .

His aim was to understand and describe the ecology of the waters of different continents in their landscape ecological framework. In the 1960s, his research goals were the tropical high mountain lakes, about which he wrote numerous publications.

In Austria he began to research paleolimnology, an area in which there were few publications at the time. Today this research direction, which is mainly based on the methods of micropalaeontology and pollen stratigraphy , forms a basis for climate research and the archeology of wetland settlements . He carried out this research as part of the “Limnological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences”, first at the Biological Station in Lunz and later at the Limnological Institute in Mondsee, which he founded .

At the University of Vienna he set up the chair for limnology, which today belongs to the department for limnology in the faculty of life sciences at the University of Vienna. He also succeeded in significantly expanding the Limnological Institute at the Academy of Sciences. He headed this until 1986.

In 1974 he established a postgraduate course for third world students on water management that became a huge success.

He was also able to achieve numerous successes for nature conservation, such as placing the Lobau under protection or the Neusiedler See biosphere reserve . He was also instrumental in protecting the Hainburger Au . When the occupation began in 1984, he paused his research stay in Canada to look for solutions with the federal government .

Löffler was buried at the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna.

Works (selection)

  • The Neusiedlersee: Natural history of a steppe lake , 1974, ISBN 3217006267
  • 70 years Biological Station Lunz: 70 years limnology in Austria , 1976 ISBN 385326512X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Fritz Schiemer, Dan L. Danielopol: Heinz Löffler (1927-2006). Retrieved June 18, 2019 .
  2. ↑ OR. i. R. Dr. phil. Alfred Peter Kaltenbach on ZOBODAT
personal data
SURNAME Löffler, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian limnologist and member of the Academy of Sciences
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 2006
Place of death Vienna