Lev Semyonovich Berg

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Lev Semyonovich Berg

Lev Berg ( Russian Лев Семёнович Берг ., Scientific transliteration Lev Semenovic mountain ; born March 2 . Jul / 14. March  1876 greg. In Bendery ; †  24. December 1950 in Leningrad ) was a Soviet zoologist and geographer.

Youth and Studies

Lev Semjonowitsch Berg was born on March 14, 1876 in a Jewish family in Bendery (then Bessarabia Governorate , now Moldova). From 1885 to 1894 he attended high school in Chișinău , which he successfully graduated with a gold medal (highest award). He was then baptized Lutheran in order to begin his studies at the physics and mathematics faculty of Moscow State University . The focus of his studies in the early years was primarily zoology, especially ichthyology, and in later years also geography. During his studies, he was already engaged in studies of the fish of the Dniester , Bessarabia and the Urals . In 1898, Berg graduated from the university.

Scientific work

In the years after his studies he mainly dealt with climatology and zoogeography. As part of his geographical studies, Berg investigated the chemical, physical and biological properties of fresh water, especially of lakes in Central Asia and Western Siberia. Among other things, he investigated Lake Balkhash , Lake Ladoga , Issyk Kul and the Aral Sea , on which he received his doctorate in 1909 with his publication Aral Sea ( Аральское море ).

In addition, he mainly dealt with climatology during this time. Based on his studies in Central Asia and Siberia, he developed a natural zone model that divided the earth into zones based on climatic factors, the relief, the soil and the plant cover. Berg published several works on climatology in which he recorded these findings. Among other things, the books Climate and Life ( Климат и жизнь ; 1922), Fundamentals of Climatology ( Основы климатологии ; 1927) and Landscape-Geographic Zones of the USSR ( Ландшафтно-географические СРоские ).

From 1904 to 1913 he worked as a senior zoologist for the ichthyology department at the Museum of Zoology at the Academy of Sciences. In 1914 he became professor of ichthyology and hydrology at the Agricultural Institute in Moscow. Berg dealt with ichthyology throughout his life , which resulted in many useful insights into the paleontology , anatomy and embryology of fish in Russia. Furthermore, his investigations into the breeding periods of fish and the influence of climatic fluctuations on migrating fish species were of essential importance. Berg published numerous works on the fish of Russia, such as The Fish of Turkistan ( Рыбы Туркестана ; 1905) or his most famous work Freshwater Fish of the Russian Empire ( Рыбы пресных вод Российской империи ) in 1916.

In 1916 he received a chair in geography at the Petrograd University, which he held until 1925. In 1922 his nomogenesis came out, a theory of macroevolution that was soon much discussed . From 1932 he worked as head of the applied ichthyology department of the Institute of Fisheries and in 1934 became head of the ichthyology laboratory department in the Zoological Institute of the Academy of Sciences in Leningrad. From 1940 to 1950 Berg was President of the Russian Geographical Society . In 1946 he became a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in which he was chairman of the Ichthyological Commission from 1948 to 1950. He became internationally known for his work Leo S. Berg: Classification of fishes both recent and fossil (Russian Система рыбообразных и рыб, ныне живущих и ископаемых , 1940, German 1958, English 1940, reprint 1965) Set standards of a modern system, especially since it also took into account the primitive fish-like species.

In 1940 he founded the taxon Birgeriidae Berg in the zoological systematics , a family of extinct bony fish from the subclass of the cartilaginous organoids (Chondrostei).

honors and awards

In 1949 the fourth edition of his work on the fish of the Soviet Union appeared, meanwhile under the name Freshwater fish of the USSR and neighboring countries ( Рыбы пресных вод СССР и сопредельных стран ), for which mountain received the Stalin Prize in 1951 posthumously .

In 2001 the Bank of the Republic of Transnistria issued a silver commemorative coin in honor of Lev Berg.

A volcano on the Kuril island of Urup, a mountain and a glacier in the Pamir Mountains , a cape on the October Revolution Island , a glacier in the Djungarian Alatau and the Berg Mountains in Antarctica are named after Lew Berg . In addition, more than 60 Latin animal and plant names contain his name.

Since 1992, the Russian Academy of Sciences has awarded the L. S. Berg Gold Medal for outstanding achievements in the fields of geography, biogeography or ichthyology.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Series of coins “The Outstanding People Transdniestria”
  2. ↑ L.-S.-Berg-Golmedaille. Russian Золотая медаль имени Л.С. Берга . Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed May 16, 2018 (Russian).

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Berg, Lev Semyonovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Берг, Лев Семёнович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet zoologist and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Bender
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1950
Place of death Leningrad