Horst Marschner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Horst Marschner (born October 30, 1929 in Zuckmantel , Czechoslovakia , † September 21, 1996 in Stuttgart ) was a German agricultural chemist in the field of plant nutrition . With his research work on the mineral metabolism of plants, he earned the highest reputation in the international professional world.

Life path

Horst Marschner attended the Agricultural College in Eisenach from 1949 to 1951 and then studied agriculture at the University of Jena . In 1954 he passed the examination to become a qualified farmer . After a two-semester supplementary course in chemistry in Jena, he got a job as an assistant at the Agricultural-Chemical Institute of the University of Jena. Under the aegis of the agricultural chemist Gerhard Michael , he received his doctorate in 1957 at the University of Jena with a dissertation on the question of phosphorus excretion by plant roots. This was followed by a two-year activity as a senior assistant to the geneticist Hans Stubbe in the chemistry and physiology department of the Institute for Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben .

In 1960 Marschner moved to the Federal Republic of Germany. He followed his teacher Gerhard Michael to the Hohenheim Agricultural University . Here he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Plant Nutrition and Soil Biology. In 1961 he completed his habilitation with a thesis on the absorption of cesium and its distribution in the plant. From 1966 he worked as a professor of plant nutrition, plant chemistry and soil biology at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Technical University of Berlin . From 1976 to 1996 he taught again as a full professor for plant nutrition in Hohenheim. He died at the age of 66 of complications from malaria , which he probably contracted while visiting an agricultural research project in West Africa.

Research and Teaching

From the beginning of his scientific activity, the uptake of minerals by the roots , as well as their transport and function during the growth of plants, was the focus of his research. He was particularly interested in the elements phosphorus , cesium , zinc and iron . In the seventies and eighties, Marschner, an innovative experimenter, also increasingly devoted himself to the processes in the rhizosphere . From 1978 to 1988 he coordinated a priority program of the German Research Foundation on nutrient dynamics in the plant / soil contact area. Later he also carried out projects on the role of mycorrhiza in the mineral nutrition of forest trees.

Marschner has tried again and again to make the results of basic research useful for the practice of agriculture. Through two longer study visits to California and South Australia , he was able to establish a wide range of international contacts with specialist colleagues in the 1970s. This strengthened the global view of his subject in him. He firmly believed that agricultural research could improve people's living conditions. With great commitment, he participated in interdisciplinary agricultural projects at the University of Hohenheim in Turkey , West Africa and China . Together with numerous doctoral students, he mainly examined the complex problems of adapting agricultural crops to nutrient-poor soils.

Marschner has published the results of his experimental research mainly in the "Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science" and in the "Journal for Plant Physiology", several articles in English in the internationally renowned journal "The New Phytologist".

Marschner's main scientific work is his teaching and manual " Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants ". The first edition appeared in 1986, a second in 1995. The book, with almost 900 printed pages and numerous illustrations, is considered a masterpiece for the integration of the fields of plant nutrition , plant physiology and soil science . It received the highest recognition in the reviews of specialist scientists. Even today it is one of the pioneering international standard works on the mineral metabolism of plants. After Marschner's death, several unchanged reprint editions of the second edition appeared, the last in 2008.

honors and awards

Important publications

  • Experimental studies on the question of phosphorus excretion by the plant roots with the help of radioactive phosphorus . Diss. Agricultural Faculty Univ. Jena 1957.
  • The uptake of cesium and its distribution in the plant . Habil.-Schr. Agricultural Hochsch. Hohenheim 1961. - In the book trade at Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1962 = work of the Hohenheim Agricultural University, vol. 11.
  • Nutritional and yield physiological aspects of plant nutrition . In: Applied Botany Vol. 52, 1978, pp. 71-87.
  • General introduction to the mineral nutrition of plants . In: Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, New Series. Edited by A. Läuchli and RL Bielski. Springer-Verlag Berlin and New York; Vol. 15A, 1983, pp. 5-60.
  • Bärbel Sommer and Horst Marschner: Plant availability of heavy metals; after many years of fertilization with sewage sludge . Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1986 = Agricultural and environmental research in Baden-Württemberg vol. 13.
  • Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants . Academic Press London et al. 1986, 674 pages; 2nd edition ibid. 1995, 889 pages; from the 2nd edition to 2008 several reprint editions.

literature

  • E. George and V. Römheld: In memoriam Prof. Dr. Dr. hc H. Marschner . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 159, 1996, pp. 525-526 (with picture).
  • Erwin Reisch: Obituary for Prof. Dr. Drs. Hc Horst Marschner . In: Troz News (communications from the Tropical Center of the University of Hohenheim) Vol. 3, September 1996 edition, pp. 3–4.
  • David Clarkson: Obituary: Prof. Dr. Horst Marschner, 1929–1996 . In: The New Phytologist Vol. 134, No. 3, p. I (first page of this issue).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Marschner, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agricultural chemist
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Zuckmantel , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1996
Place of death Stuttgart