Alfred Newton's contribution to ornithology: a conservative quest for facts rather than grand theories

Alfred Newton (1829–1907) was a founding member of the British Ornithologists’ Union, served as editor of The Ibis, and became one of the best‐known British ornithologists of the nineteenth‐century. Between 1855 and 1864 he travelled in Europe and North America, making a trip to Iceland in 1858 with John Wolley in search of information about the Great Auk Pinguinus impennis. In 1866 Newton obtained the chair of Zoology and Comparative Zoology at the University of Cambridge, where he remained for rest of his career. An unenthusiastic teacher, Newton nevertheless encouraged successive generations of young ornithologists through the soirées he held in his college rooms. Newton published extensively, but his most significant publication was the Dictionary of Birds (1896). Newton's death marked the beginning of the end of a long period in which scientific ornithology comprised little more than taxonomy and nomenclature, although Newton was also instrumental in initiating conservation legislation. Extremely conservative in most aspects of his life, Newton was nevertheless the first ornithologist to appreciate the significance of natural selection. He therefore constitutes an important figure in an era of ornithology that immediately precedes the current interest in field ornithology.     

Ornithology and bird conservation in North America – a Canadian perspective

Capsule A comparison between North American and European ornithology shows many differences between the two.

While local knowledge was developed over millennia in Europe, in North America much was originally learned from the indigenous people. Knowing the food value of wild game was essential to survival and led to a strong tradition of wildlife management in North America. However, there was also systematic exploration of the local avifauna by museum-based collectors. This dual origin of ornithology is still detectable today. North American ornithology, particularly through the introduction of the Migratory Birds Convention Act of 1917, is strongly influenced by federal, state and provincial governments who have a statutory responsibility for the protection of wild birds. Because the USA and Canada, and more recently Mexico, are responsible for the administration of the Act, many initiatives in bird conservation involve international co-operation, starting initially with the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, but now extended to all species of birds. Many partnerships involving government, professional and amateur ornithologists (e.g. Bird Studies Canada) have resulted in monitoring of bird populations similar to that done by the BTO. However, there still seems to be a paucity of population studies and survey information in the mainstream ornithological journals in North America.     

Poetry and Precision: Johannes Thienemann,the Bird Observatory in Rossitten and Civic Ornithology, 1900–1930

In the early twentieth century, ornithology underwent significant changes. So far, these changes, basically, have been studied by focussing on the elite of professional biologists working at universities or state museums. However, important developments also occurred in what Lynn Nyhart has called “the civic realm” of science – the sphere given form by private naturalist associations, nature writers, taxidermists and school teachers. This article studies the changing dynamics of civic ornithology, by looking at one particular case: the influential orinthological observatory in Rossitten, East-Prussia. This observatory, the first of its kind, was founded in 1901 and led, for the first three decades of its existence, by the minister Johannes Thienemann. This article analyses the ornithological practices Thienemann developed in Rossitten and the rhetoric he used to defend these practices. In both, so it is argued, one finds a mixture of the traditional, locally anchored naturalist approach with the new ideals of the “modern” and “experimental” university laboratories. The innovations which Thienemann introduced in this hybrid form of ornithology called for specific spatial strategies which made optimal use of the natural chatacteristics of his workplace and which mobilized a large civic network of geograhically scattered amateurs. At the same time, his work also altered the space he shared with the birds – materially, conceptually and culturally. Thus, this article maintains Thienemann's ornithology can only be understood by acknowledging its continuous interaction with the geographical and civic context in which it arose.     

Reinforcing the foundations of ornithological nomenclature: Filling the gaps in Sherborn’s and Richmond’s historical legacy of bibliographic exploration

Due to its public popularity, ornithology has a huge corpus of scientific publication for a relatively small number of species. Although there are global checklists of currently recognised taxa, there has been only limited, mainly individual, effort to build a nomenclatural database that the science of ornithology deserves. This is especially true in relation to concise synonymies. With the arrival of ZooBank and the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the time has come to develop synonymies and to add fuller bibliographic detail to databases. The preparation for both began at the start of the 20^th century with extensive work by Sherborn and Richmond. I discuss their legacy, offer notes on significant work since then, and provide suggestions for what remains to be done. To make solid the foundations for ornithological nomenclature and taxonomy, especially for synonymies, ornithologists will need to collaborate much more and contribute to the digital infrastructure.     

《生态学基础》：对生态学从传统向现代的推进——纪念E.P.奥德姆诞辰100周年

2013年是“现代生态学之父”美国生态学家奥德姆诞辰100周年。奥德姆的《生态学基础》一书对生态学从传统向现代转换具有积极的推进作用,主要表现在：提升了生态科学的量化水平,促成了生态系统生态学体系的诞生;倡导了生态学与经济学等社会科学的融合,丰富了生态经济学与生态系统服务功能研究;延展了生态学的应用尺度,为社会的生产变革和绿色运动提供了指导。奥德姆的生态学理论中诸如以能量分析为主导的生态系统分析方法还有待完善、生态系统方面较少考虑进化维度,衡量能量质量高低的能值方法的科学性有改善的空间等,但这都无碍他成为世界上最杰出的生态学家之一。     

Observations on Thorea ramosissimaBory (Batrachospermales,Thoreaceae), a freshwater red alga rarely recorded in the British Isles

The conspicuous macroscopic stage of the freshwater red alga Thorea ramosissima has been re-discovered in the River Thames after a lapse of almost 140 years. In the 1840s it was reported only from Walton-on-Thames, but is now known from 13 localities along a 133 km stretch between Oxford and Teddington. It is transient, often remaining undetected at known localities in subsequent years. All British records are assessed, especially 19th century collections from the Thames. The ecology and the morphology of the macroscopic stage are discussed.     

Fifty years of Bird Study

Capsule Field ornithology is alive and well, and in the future can contribute much more in Britain and elsewhere.

Aims To review the progress of field ornithology in Britain in the context of Bird Study and the British Trust for Ornithology.

Methods An overview was taken of the main subject areas published in Bird Study to characterize progress over 50 years. Some quantification of data on the main bird organizations was performed.

ResultsKnowledge of status and trends of British birds has moved from the qualitative to generally well detailed quantitative over the past 50 years. Causes of distribution and changes are increasingly well understood in terms of habitat and of population processes. Behaviour and ecology have grown to be separate disciplines in their own right although birds have been major subjects of study within them. Migration studies have lagged somewhat in Britain but advanced elsewhere in recent decades. Amongst the main bird organizations, the BTO still has a growing membership, that of the RSPB has reached an astonishing level but may be nearing a plateau while the BOU's membership is clearly in decline.

Conclusions Field ornithology has made a large contribution to the environmental debate and the future is set for further integration across disciplines in answering large-scale questions. Great public interest has supported the growth of ornithology with a big switch from amateur to professional workers. There is a major challenge to exploit the value of birds in promoting interest in the environment and delivering sound facts to support the biodiversity debate elsewhere on Earth. Fifty years of history in Britain indicate what is possible.     

Identification Keys,the “Natural Method,” and the Development of Plant Identification Manuals

The origins of field guides and other plant identification manuals have been poorly understood until now because little attention has been paid to 18th century botanical identification guides. Identification manuals came to have the format we continue to use today when botanical instructors in post-Revolutionary France combined identification keys (step-wise analyses focusing on distinctions between plants) with the “natural method” (clustering of similar plants, allowing for identification by gestalt) and alphabetical indexes. Botanical works featuring multiple but linked techniques to enable plant identification became very popular in France by the first decade of the 19th century. British botanists, however, continued to use Linnaeus’s sexual system almost exclusively for another two decades. Their reluctance to use other methods or systems of classification can be attributed to a culture suspicious of innovation, anti-French sentiment and the association of all things Linnaean with English national pride, fostered in particular by the President of the Linnean Society of London, Sir James Edward Smith. The British aversion to using multiple plant identification technologies in one text also helps explain why it took so long for English botanists to adopt the natural method, even after several Englishmen had tried to introduce it to their country. Historians of ornithology emphasize that the popularity of ornithological guides in the 19th and 20th centuries stems from their illustrations, illustrations made possible by printing technologies that improved illustration quality and reduced costs. Though illustrations are the most obvious features of late 19th century and 20th century guides, the organizational principles that make them functional as identification devices come from techniques developed in botanical works in the 18th century.     

Trends and themes in African ornithology

Ornithology in Africa has a long history. I review trends in the ornithological literature since 1990 within the context of the 14th Pan-African Ornithological Congress. Using full text searches of papers on PubMed® and abstracts from main ornithological journals I found that most papers referencing African bird species are focused on medical-related research questions. Restricting the literature search to journals African ornithologists are most likely to publish in, I found 2 279 relevant papers. These describe work on 29% of African bird species from 82% of African bird families, in all but two African countries. Overall output has increased slightly over time, with more papers tackling more research topics. Most popular research topics were demography, conservation and climate, with disease ecology, physiology and ecological processes the least researched topics. I found that while many authors with African affiliations publish papers, outside of South Africa very few African-based authors reliably publish in the international research literature, perhaps indicating difficulties in establishing a productive research career in much of Africa. I conclude with a call to overseas ornithologists working in Africa and to organisations funding research in Africa to work together to build capacity outside of the few established research centres.     

Ernst Mayr as community architect: Launching the society for the study of evolution and the journalEvolution

Ernst Mayr's contributions to 20th century biology extend far beyond his defense of certain elements in evolutionary theory. At the center of mid-century efforts in American evolutionary studies to build large research communities, Mayr spearheaded campaigns to create a Society for the Study of Evolution and a dedicated journal,Evolution, in 1946. Begun to offset the prominence ofDrosophila biology and evolutionary genetics, these campaigns changed course repeatedly, as impediments appeared, tactics shifted, and compromises built a growing coalition of support. Preserved, however, were designs to balance the community and journal with careful equation of status and explicit partitioning of responsibilities within the working coalition. Choice terms such as cooperation and unity carried a strong political message. Mayr's editorship ofEvolution provides a superb example of these balancing efforts. The mid-century infrastructural activities described herein also represented aggressive attempts to leverage control across several layers of community. Leaders of these campaigns sought: (1) to promote evolutionary studies as a modernized research discipline and place it at the center of American biology, (2) to promote evolutionary studies within existing disciplines — e.g. systematics, genetics, and paleontology, (3) to foster certain research styles within evolutionary studies, and (4) to emphasize certain solutions to prominent research questions. Throughout, Mayr interjected his priorities, tactics and energy.     

The Return of the Phoenix: The 1963 International Congress of Zoology and American Zoologists in the Twentieth Century

This paper examines the International Congress of Zoology held in Washington D.C. in 1963 as a portrait of American zoologists’ search for effective and rewarding relationships with both each other and the public. Organizers of the congress envisioned the congress as a last ditch effort to unify the disparate subdisciplines of zoology, overcome the barriers of specialization, and ward off the heady claims of more reductionist biologists. The problems zoologists faced as they worked to fulfill these ambitious goals illuminate some of the challenges faced by members of the naturalist tradition as they worked to establish disciplinary unity while seeking public support in the competitive world of twentieth century science.     

Late Holocene regime shifts in moorland ecosystems: high resolution data from the Pennines,UK

Identifying critical shifts in ecosystems caused by human impacts has become a priority for understanding resilience to change and setting realistic landscape management goals. Previous work suggests that many British blanket peats have suffered a loss of functional integrity over recent centuries, but it is unclear whether all moorland habitats are equally vulnerable. This study examines the relative sensitivity of four contrasting moorland communities to historic land-use changes and assesses whether these management pressures are pushing some moorlands beyond their Holocene range of variability. Late Holocene dynamics in the Peak District, northern England, were investigated using high resolution pollen, fungal spore and charcoal data, and multivariate analyses. All sites show high Calluna values during the 19th century and converge on local Poaceae dominance during the 20th century. This involved a shift from gradual or cyclical variability and moderate changes in pollen abundance during preceding centuries, to rapid transitions between mono-dominant pollen assemblages and a functional shift to taxa with competitive traits; these are interpreted as a regime shift. Evidence for the recent recovery of dwarf shrubs and Sphagnum is strong at one site, with slight evidence from two others, but disturbance could push the system back to grass dominance. The deep blanket peat site may have crossed a threshold, leading to a persistent grass dominated state. Studying regime shifts on decadal to centennial scales can help bridge the gap between ecology and palaeoecology by providing a robust basis for assessing vulnerability, setting restoration priorities and managing novel peatland states.     

我国草地生态研究的成就与展望

我国草地面积达4.0×10~6km~2,占国土总面积的41%。一方面,草地为草食动物提供食料,为人类提供肉、乳、毛、皮和多种药材。另一方面,它对保持水土、改善人民居住环境及维持区域生态平衡起着重大作用。可见,草地不但是我国主要的生态系统类型,而且是重     

A spatialized digital database for all bird species in China

The lack of refined spatial detail on bird distribution in China has hindered further research due to the large geographic unit(provincial level) in existing national bird distribution data. Based on multi-source bird distribution data, we built a more spatially detailed distribution database for every bird species(1,371 species) in China, covering 2,908 counties. The sources on bird distribution are grouped into six categories: Handbooks, Literature; Fauna, Avifauna; Paper; Citizen Science data by ornithologists or birders; GPS tracing; and Website data. The database contains the following records: taxonomy, distribution data, suspicious species information, and data sources. Our database recorded 835 species(61%) appearing outside the distribution range previously known. The use of provincial boundaries as the smallest geographical unit has created misleading distribution results due to geographic aggregation for most species. The new database was built based on increased observational frequency and individuals observed in previously undetected areas particularly in Western China and towards higher altitudes and latitudes. They coincided with the discovery of the range expansion of some waterfowls into Xinjiang. The dataset provides a new base for Chinese and international ornithology studies, especially for those requiring more detailed distribution information for many taxa and large-scale regional research.     

近代云南鸟类学简史

云南省独特的地理位置、复杂的自然环境、丰富的生物资源,及其区系组成和物种分化的特异性,早就吸引着中外学者。鸦片战争以后,西方学者纷至沓来,而国内学者的研究则主要是新中国成立以后才发展起来的。六十年代以前,进行了大量的野外区系普查,七十年代起开始转为对标本、资料的整理,同时,生态等其他领域也有了新的开端。近代云南鸟类学的发展,从时间上可划分为三个阶段,从内容上又可分若干方面。     

Erinnerungen an Ornithologen, die ich kannte (2. Teil)

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz stellt eine Fortsetzung der Niederschrift eines Vortrages des Autors dar, die im Heft 3/1998 des Journals veröffentlicht wurde. Die hier wiedergegebenen Informationen wurden am 23. September 1999 vor der 132. Jahresversammlung der DO-G in Bayreuth vorgetragen. Erneut berichtete der Autor aus Biographien mehrerer ornithologisch interessierter Naturkundler und schenkt der Untersuchung des Einflusses politisch-gesell-schaftlicher Verhältnisse auf deren wissenschaftliche Tätigkeit und persönliche Schicksale besonderes Interesse. Auch wirkliche und potentielle Nobelpreisträger sind unter den geschilderten Persönlichkeiten. Der Autor geht auch zurück in die Geschichte des vorigen Jahrhunderts, um zu belegen, dass die Verhältnisse in den Diktaturen der jüngeren Zeit kein Einzelphänomen waren. Auch diesmal basiert die Schilderung auf persönlichen Erfahrungen, die oft durch Informationen aus Archiven, diversen Publikationen und Berichten noch lebender Zeitzeugen überprüft und ergänzt wurden.

---

Reflections on ornithologists I have known (part 2)

Summary The content of this paper was presented at the 1999 Annual General Meeting of the German Ornithologists Society held in Bayreuth as a sequel of the presentation given in 1997, which has been published (J. Ornithol. 139: 325–348, 1998). Basing his work on some further 15 personal histories of naturalists, the author is again investigating the impact of socio-political relationships on their scientific activities and the involvement ofsome of the scientists in politics. In addition to famous personalities from the middle of the 20th century, such as the Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz, analyses were also made in respect of some nineteenth century personalities and some from the last decade of the twentieth. The author is of the opinion that a knowledge of history is important not only for future development in general, but also for science, i. a. for ornithology.

     

Fifty years of invasion ecology – the legacy of Charles Elton

The publication, in 1958, of Charles Elton's book The ecology of invasions by animals and plants launched the systematic study of biological invasions. Invasion ecology has grown to become an important multi‐disciplinary subfield of ecology with growing links to many other disciplines. This paper examines the citation history of Elton's book using the Web of Science. We also examine Elton's influence in shaping the current research agenda in invasion ecology, for which we use the 28 papers in a special issue of Diversity and Distributions (Volume 14: 2) as a representative sample. After 50 years, Elton's book remains the most cited single source in the field (> 1500 citations), and is cited more often every year (> 100 times) than any other invasion‐related publication, including influential papers in journals. Most citations to Elton's book refer to particular topics/concepts covered in the book, rather than citing it as a general reference about invasions. The shift in the distribution of topics/concepts cited with reference to Elton over time follows the same trend as for biogeography and ecology in general (increasing emphasis on analytical studies, multi‐scale analyses, multi‐disciplinary studies, etc.). Some topics emphasized by Elton are still the focus of current research (dispersal and spread of invasive organisms, impact on biodiversity, role of disturbance and enemy release) but several prominent themes in modern studies were not addressed by Elton. The emergence of new themes can be attributed to a general change in approach and emphasis underpinning research questions in conservation biogeography and applied ecology over the last half century (risk analysis, multi‐scale comparisons, propagule pressure, experimental approaches) and to the recent emergence and increasing availability of large data sets on the distribution of introduced species and to the emergence of key technologies (e.g. geographic information systems, modelling techniques, including niche‐based modelling, and molecular methods). Half a century after its publication, Charles Elton's book on invasions remains influential, but massive changes in the status of invasions and other environmental issues worldwide, together with advances in technology, are reshaping the game rules and priorities of invasion ecology.     

Haeckel,un darwinien allemand ?

German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919) is often considered the most renowned Darwinian in his country since, as early as 1862, he declared that he accepted the conclusions Darwin had reached three years before in On the Origin of Species, and afterwards, he continuously proclaimed himself a supporter of the English naturalist and championed the evolutionary theory. Nevertheless, if we examine carefully his books, in particular his General Morphology (1866), we can see that he carries on a tradition very far from Darwin's thoughts. In spite of his acceptance of the idea of natural selection, that he establishes as an argument for materialism, he adopts, indeed, a conception of evolution that is, in some respects, rather close to Lamarck's views. He is, thus, a good example of the ambiguities of the reception of Darwinism in Germany in the second part of the 19th century. To cite this article: S. Schmitt, C. R. Biologies 332 (2009).     

What is being done in biological physics in the United Kingdom

In an earlier issue of this journal (Volume 1, number 2) we outlined current research projects and graduate training programs in American universities. This article is similar in that it includes relevant data for British universities.     

A decadal review of urban ornithology and a prospectus for the future

The study of urban birds has increased exponentially in the last century. A prior review of the scientific literature up to the year 2000 found 100 research articles on urban birds, but in the past decade alone, over 1000 have been published. Here I review the studies from 2006–2015 to characterize their approach, location, general findings and recent obsessions, with an eye toward suggesting important future directions. Urban ornithology remains centred in the northern hemisphere, although there is a rapid increase in studies from southern, tropical and biodiverse settings. Studies in the north have changed from documentation of the composition of urban avifaunas to include many studies of the demographic response to aspects of urban environments. Studies of pattern remain most common in Latin America, Asia, Africa, New Zealand and the Middle East. Across the world, ornithologists are revealing the rapid evolution of behavioural and morphological adaptations by birds to the urban environment, much of which is due to phenotypic plasticity. The relationship of humans to nature generally and birds specifically has been increasingly studied as a driver of avifaunal change as well as a factor affecting human ethics. Urban ornithology remains rarely experimental, but it has matured to the point of supporting synthetic reviews and meta‐analyses that quantify the loss of avian diversity from city centres, characterize successful urban birds, discuss the role of amount and arrangement of vegetation on bird life, and explore the complex relationships between the subsidies and hazards of urban life and the survival and reproduction of birds. Yet much remains to be learned, including how some species thrive in cities with abundant predators; how city form and location affect the peak in avian richness that occurs typically at intermediate levels of urbanization; the significance of functional biotic homogenization; and the ways in which engaging citizens in urban bird life informs their broader environmental land ethic.