Howard T. Odum

Howard Thomas Odum (born September 1, 1924 in Durham , North Carolina , † September 11, 2002 in Gainesville , Florida ) was an American ecologist .

Life

Like his older brother Eugene , who also became a well-known ecologist, he was induced by his father, the sociologist Howard W. Odum , to study biology with a specialization in ecology. He began studying zoology at the University of North Carolina , which he completed in 1947 after interruptions during World War II , in which he worked as a tropical meteorologist for the United States Air Force . At Yale University he studied until receiving his PhD in 1951 with GE Hutchinson, among others . He specialized in biogeochemistry and researched the strontium cycle.

In the following years he held professorships at the University of Texas , the University of Puerto Rico and the University of North Carolina, until he finally came to the University of Florida in 1971 , where he worked until his death in 2002 founded the Center for Wetlands.

plant

His study of Lake Silver Springs in Florida, published in 1957, is considered the first complete analysis of a natural ecosystem. He determined the energy balance of the lake by first making a holistic model of the lake and then precisely defining all the individual components (solar radiation, rain, etc.).

In another study, which he shared with his brother in the reefs of Eniwetok - Atoll of the Marshall Islands conducted, he showed that coral reefs a relatively independent ecosystem form and not, as previously thought, its energy from which they escape the surrounding sea, but from Extracting algae , which produce simple organic substances for corals and in return receive their carbon dioxide .

Awards (selection)

• George Mercer Award 1956 for work on Eniwetok Atoll (together with Eugene P. Odum)
• Institute de la Vie Prize, Paris 1976
• University of Florida Presidential Medal 1976
• Crafoord Prize 1987 (together with Eugene P. Odum)

Fonts (selection)

• Fundamentals of Ecology , 1953 (with Eugene P. Odum)
• Environment, Power and Society , 1971
• Energy Basis for Man and Nature , 1976
• Systems Ecology: an Introduction , 1983

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica
2. ↑ Matthias Groß : The nature of society. A history of environmental sociology . Weinheim / Munich 2001, p. 173.
3. ↑ ^{a b} excerpt from Systems Thinkers . Springer, 2009.
4. ↑ ^{a b} The Encyclopedia of Earth
5. ↑ Press release on the occasion of the Crafoord Prize
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

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