| RefNo | EC/1983/42 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XXI, 130 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Hutchinson, George Evelyn: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1982 |
| Description | Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished equally for his seminal contributions to limnology and population ecology and for his masterly syntheses of biological thought.
After graduating in the University of Cambridge in 1924 he was Senior Lecturer in the University of Witwatersrand from 1926 to 1928, working mainly on the systematics and distribution of aquatic Hemiptera. Following appointment as instructor in Zoology at Yale in 1928 his interest in limnology broadened. In 1932 he carried out work on the Western Tibetan Plateau, then in 1935, with G.A. Riley, began a series of studies on Linsley Pond, Connecticut, of the metabolism of the lake as an entity. From eddy diffusion coefficients derived from temperature changes he was able to differentiate three depth zones in this temperate lake and on this basis suggest mechanisms for vertical transport. In 1941 he attempted to use radiophosphorus to study the metabolism of phosphorus in lake but the quantities of the tracer then available were inadequate. However, working with Bowen, he later (1947, 1950) carried out the first successful experiments of this type. He also carried out a critical evaluation of W.H. Pearsall's ideas about the relationships between phytoplankton periodicity and chemical changes in lake waters, then went on to initiate studies on vitamins, such as thiamine (1943) and niacin (1946), in freshwater. Wider studies resulted in important papers on the biogeochemistry of aluminium (1943), nitrogen (1944), vertebrate excretion (1950) and phosphorus (1952).
At about the same times as similar ideas were developing in Britain at the Freshwater Biological Association, he became aware that there were characteristic sequences in the chemical composition of the sediments laid down in small lakes during postglacial time and made use of this finding to elucidate the ecological history of lakes. This culminated in a major collaborative study (1970) of Lago di Montrerosi in Italy in which it was shown that a drastic change in the ecology of this crater lake was produced by the building of the Via Cassia near its margin in C. 171 B.C.
He has been a major influence on the development of the discipline of population ecology: directly, and with his associates and students (e.g. the paper with Deevey (1949)), he has been the pioneer in the blending of mathematical insights with those gained from field observations. His papers on animal diversity and the niche concept (1957, 1959 and 1961) have proved seminal.
His great work "A treatise on limnology", a synthesis of physiographic, physical, chemical and biological knowledge of lakes, will probably never be rivalled for thoroughness and scholarship. The volumes so far published are I Geography, physics and chemistry (1957), II Introduction to lake biology and limnoplankton (1967), III Limnological botany (1975). Whilst bringing together information from the widest possible variety of sources this treatise also provides new and definitive treatment of numerous topics - for example, his discussion of the hydromechanics of the plankton is important both to limnologists and oceanographers. His Introduction to Population Ecology (1978) gives a uniquely historical perspective on modern principles.
Hutchinson has founded influential schools in both limnology and ecology. He was appointed Professor at Yale in 1945 and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949 and to the National Academy of Science in 1950. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA385 | Hutchinson; George Evelyn (1903 - 1991) | 1903 - 1991 |