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SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN
1574–1635A French explorer, cartographer, soldier,
and naturalist, Champlain explored and
mapped much of Canada. He founded
the city of Quebec and established
the colony of New France. As a sharp
observer and chronicler, he documented
animals and made notes about plants,
including details of leaves, fruits, and
nuts, and inquired about how the
Native American people used them.
See also: Classification of living things
82–83JAMES AUDUBON
1785–1851The pioneer of North American
ornithology, Audubon grew up in Haiti
and France before emigrating to the
US in 1803. He developed an interest
in nature, especially birds, and was
a talented artist. His artistic technique
was unusual: after shooting a bird,
he held it in a “natural pose,” using fine
wire, and painted it with a backdrop of
the bird’s natural habitat. Between 1827
and 1838 he published The Birds
of America in a series of installments.
It included 435 colored prints of 497
species, six of which are now extinct.
Audubon also discovered 25 previouslynotably in Canadian Wild Flowers (1865)
and Studies of Plant Life in Canada
(1885). Her many albums of plant
collections are housed in the National
Herbarium of Canada, at the Canadian
Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
See also: Endangered habitats 236–239KARL AUGUST MÖBIUS
1825–1908A German pioneer, Möbius was primarily
interested in the ecology of marine
ecosystems. After studying at the
Natural History Museum of Berlin,
and earning a Ph.D. at the University of
Halle, he opened a seawater aquarium
in Hamburg in 1863. While a professor of
zoology at the University of Kiel, his work
on the viability of commercial oyster
production in the Bay of Kiel led him
to recognize the various dependent
relationships between organisms in
the oyster bank ecosystem.
See also: The ecosystem 134–137ERNST HAECKEL
1834–1919Haeckel was a biologist, physician,
and artist who popularized Charles
Darwin’s ideas in Germany (while also
rejecting many of them) and introduced
the word “ecology” in 1866. Born inDIRECTORY
I
n addition to the scientists covered in the preceding chapters of this
book, many other men and women have made significant contributions
to the development of ecology. They have ranked among the greatest
scientific thinkers of their time. Some have excelled in academia, while
some came from other walks of life but pioneered new approaches to
advance. Still more have been formidable campaigners. Although they
worked in a range of disciplines, all have contributed to our understanding
of Earth’s biosphere, how it has evolved, and humanity’s place in it.
Crucially, their work continues to show what needs to be done to preserve
the natural world and to protect Earth from the destructive consequences
of human behavior.undescribed species and used yarn
to “band” birds—meaning he tied it to
their legs, allowing him to identify
individual bird—to find out more about
their movements.
See also: Animal ecology 106–113MARY ANNING
1799–1847In 2010, the Royal Society named
Anning as one of the 10 British women
who have most influenced the history of
science. She found fame as a fossil
collector and paleontologist, and her
extraordinary fossil finds, from Jurassic
strata in the cliffs of the Dorset coast,
included the first correctly described
ichthyosaur, two relatively complete
plesiosaurs, and the first pterosaur from
outside Germany. Her finds helped
change views about Earth’s history,
providing strong evidence for extinction.
See also: Mass extinctions 218–223CATHERINE PARR TRAILL
1802–1899A botanist and prolific author, Traill
was born in the UK and emigrated to
what is now Ontario, Canada, after she
married in 1832. There, she wrote about
life as a settler in Canada. She also
wrote about the natural environment,US_334-339_Directory.indd 334 22/11/2018 17:51