December 17, 1928, in Rochester, New York, to
Edwin C. Fritts, a physicist at Eastman Kodak Compa-
ny, and Ava Washburn Fritts. As a young boy he was
interested in natural history and weather and even
had a subscription to daily weather maps. Along with
his maps, he constructed a weather vane that read out
wind directions in his room. Fritts attended Oberlin
College in Oberlin, Ohio, from 1948 to 1951 and
received a B.A. in botany. From 1951 to 1956 he
attended Ohio State University in Columbus and
received an M.S. in botany in 1953 and a Ph.D. in
1956.
Fritts made major contributions in understanding
how trees respond to daily climatic factors and how
they record that information in ring structure. He
developed a method to statistically record a tree’s
response to changes in climate. Using that information
he developed a method to reconstruct climate from past
tree rings and to reconstruct spatial arrays of past cli-
mate from spatial arrays of tree-ring data. He also
developed a biophysical model of tree-ring structure
response to daily weather conditions. This work has
laid the groundwork for much current dendroclimatic
reconstruction work.
Fritts authored nearly 60 pioneering scientific
papers on dendrochronology, including the bible of the
field, Tree Rings and Climatein 1976, one of the most
cited books on the subject. In 1965 he was elected a
fellow in the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. He received a John Simon Guggen-
heim fellowship in botany in 1968. In 1982 he was
given the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Bio-
climatology from the American Meteorological Society,
and in 1990 he received the Award of Appreciation
from the dendrochronological community, in Lund,
Sweden.
Fritts pioneered the understanding of the biological
relationships and reconstruction of past climate from
tree-ring chronologies. He currently is engaged in some
scientific writing and is finishing work on the tree ring
model.
See alsoDENDROCHRONOLOGY.
frond The leaf of a fern or palm. Consists of the
stipe (petiole or stalk of the fruiting body) and blade,
the expanded portion of the frond. Also used to
describe the main part of a kelp plant.
frugivore Anorganism that generally eats fruits, e.g.,
the fruit bat.
See alsoHERBIVORE.fruit A mature or ripened ovary or cluster of ovaries
in a flower.fruiting body The organ in which meiosis occurs
and sexual spores are produced in fungi and mycobac-
teria. They are distinct in size, shape, and coloration
for each species.functional group Organic compounds are thought
of as consisting of a relatively unreactive backbone, for
example a chain of sp^3 (three porbitals with the s
orbital) hybridized carbon atoms, and one of several
functional groups. The functional group is an atom, or
a group of atoms, that has similar chemical properties
whenever it occurs in different compounds. It defines
the characteristic physical and chemical properties of
families of organic compounds.Fungi A kingdom of heterotrophic, single-celled,
multinucleated, or multicellular organisms that include
yeasts, molds, and mushrooms; organisms that lack
chlorophyll, cannot photosynthesize, and get their
nutrients directly from other organisms by being para-
sites or from dead organic matter, acting as sapro-
phytes. Molds, yeasts, mildews, rusts, smuts, and
mushrooms areall fungi. Fungi have a true nucleus
enclosed in a membrane and chitin in the cell wall.
There are about 8,000 fungi known to attack plants.
Some fungi are pathogenic to humans and other ani-
mals. Some molds, in particular, release toxic chemicals
called mycotoxins that can result in poisoning or death.
See alsoALGAE.fur (ferric uptake regulator) The iron uptake regulat-
ing protein present in PROKARYOTEs, which binds
simultaneously Fe and DNA, thereby preventing the
biosynthesis of ENZYMEs for the production of SCAV-
ENGERchelates (SIDEROPHOREs).
See alsoCHELATION.fur 135