{"id":4590,"date":"2010-02-27T21:39:38","date_gmt":"2010-02-27T19:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.floracantabrica.com\/?p=4590"},"modified":"2021-11-12T12:44:36","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T10:44:36","slug":"indicadores-ecologicos-de-heinz-ellenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.floracantabrica.com\/?p=4590","title":{"rendered":"Indicadores ecol\u00f3gicos de Heinz Ellenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nota: Mas informaci\u00f3n sobre la fitosociolog\u00eda en Espa\u00f1a en las \u00faltimas\u00a0 cinco d\u00e9cadas, ver pagina web. \u00bb Poore.\u00a0 M. E. D.Etnopaisaje\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 Con el Prof .Ellenberg, \u00a0amigo personal, aprend\u00ed mucho, en mi viaje a Alemania y en la correspondencia posterior que mantuve .Me identifiqu\u00e9 con \u00e9l en su disposici\u00f3n de respectar la libertad cient\u00edfica y de pensamiento. Le manifest\u00e9 mi preocupaci\u00f3n sobre todo, por introducir en Espa\u00f1a \u00ablos grupos sociecol\u00f3gicos\u00bb, pero respetando al m\u00e1ximo la libertad de mis disc\u00edpulos, que prefirieron\u00a0 seguir la opini\u00f3n de la mayor\u00eda cient\u00edfica oficial en Espa\u00f1a.<\/span><\/p>\n

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HEINZ ELLENBERG, 1913-1997<\/h2>\n

A very sad news from Germany was the recent death of Heinz Ellenberg, on May 2, 1997 in Goettingen. His scientific works and outstanding personality have touched and influenced several generations of vegetation and plant ecologists, not only in Europe, but also throughout the world.<\/p>\n

The fifth edition of his life’s synthesis work (in German), \u00abVegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen\u00bb, Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1996, had only recently arrived on my desk. His fourth (1986) edition was translated into English and appeared under the title \u00abVegetation Ecology of Central Europe\u00bb, Cambridge University Press, 1988. An earlier book in English, \u00abIntegrated Experimental Ecology\u00bb, edited by H. Ellenberg was published by Springer-Verlag in its now well-known \u00abEcological Studies Series\u00bb as Volume 2 in 1971. It dealt with methods and preliminary results of the German contribution to the IBP (International Biological Program), the first internationally coordinated big biological science program. In Germany, this was directed by Heinz Ellenberg and was known as the \u00abSolling Project.\u00bb The complete results appeared as a 20-year study in 1986 in an Ulmer book entitled \u00abOekosystemforschung – Ergebnisse des Solling Projekts 1966-1986\u00bb, edited by H. Ellenberg, R. Mayer, and J. Schauermann.<\/p>\n

I had the great fortune to sit in H. Ellenberg’s introductory botany lectures in 1948\/49 at the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim. At that time, he had just obtained his habilitation as university lecturer and was teaching the course in tandem with the botanical institute’s director, Professor Heinrich Walter. As I later realized, both were impressive teachers, whose lectures and personalities inspired me for the rest of my life. Dr. Ellenberg, at that time, introduced vegetation ecology by field excursions in which we learned how to do releves (vegetation samples). Later, after I had immigrated to Canada in 1952, and when I was inspired by Vladimir J. Krajina to continue my studies with a Ph.D. in forest ecology, I resumed active contact with both, Profs. H. Walter and H. Ellenberg.<\/p>\n

One of Ellenberg’s fundamental questions in vegetation ecology was, \u00abwhat controls the combination of plant species in field communities?\u00bb For this, the \u00abHohenheimer Groundwater Experiment\u00bb, suggested by H. Walter and carried through by H. Ellenberg, gave a compelling answer. Ellenberg clearly demonstrated the difference between physiological and ecological behaviors of plants, the first relating to the absence of competition, the second to plants growing in competition with other plants. He coined the term physiological optimum and ecological optimum, which helped to clarify the causality of plant distribution patterns in nature.<\/p>\n

These and other aspects, such as Ellenberg’s \u00abecological group concept\u00bb, were retained in the book Mueller-Dombois\/Ellenberg \u00abAims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology\u00bb, Wiley and Sons, 1974, which represented the first synthesis of European and Anglo-American approaches to vegetation ecology. The book could be written because of Ellenberg’s prior work, and it undoubtedly contributed to a broader familiarity with Ellenberg’s name among English-speaking ecologists.<\/p>\n

Heinz Ellenberg produced over 200 scientific papers, including several books, listed in part in his first \u00abFestschrift\u00bb, published by the German Ecological Society (Goettingen 1983) at the occasion of his 70th birthday. A second \u00abFestschrift\u00bb in honor of his 80th birthday appeared in Phytocoenologia Vols. 23(1993) and 24(1994). Excellent accounts on H. Ellenberg’s professional life and his impact on modern ecology, including ecosystem analysis and landscape ecology as well as the application of vegetation science to agriculture and forestry, are summarized in both his \u00abFestschrifts\u00bb by Wolfgang Haber, Gisela Jahn, and Otti Wilmanns.<\/p>\n

Heinz Ellenberg’s great contributions were increasingly and repeatedly recognized. For example, he was invited by the British Ecological Society to give the prestigious \u00abTansley Lecture\u00bb in 1977, which was subsequently published with the title \u00abMan’s influence on tropical mountain ecosystems in South America\u00bb in Journal of Ecology 67: 401-416, 1979. Moreover, he received honorable degrees from four universities: Dr. agr. h.c. (Munich), Dr. rer. nat. h.c. (Zagreb), Dr. phil. nat. h.c. (Muenster), and Dr. phil. h.c. (Lueneburg).<\/p>\n

His major works, the five successive editions concerned with the \u00abVegetation Ecology of Central Europe\u00bb, were always dedicated to his closest and strongest supporter, his wife of 60 years, Charlotte Ellenberg, herself a professional geographer and partner in his life’s work. I cannot conclude this short obituary without thinking of her unimaginable suffering by losing her husband, the man who will continue to live in the memory of all those who were touched by his outstanding personality.<\/p>\n