Anton Kerner
Ritter
Ritter (German for "knight") is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest rank within the nobility, standing above "Edler" and below "Freiherr" (Baron). As with most titles an ...
von Marilaun, or Anton Joseph Kerner, (12 November 1831 – 21 June 1898) was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
and professor at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
.
Career
Kerner was born in Mautern,
Lower Austria
Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
, and studied
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
followed by an education in natural history, for which he carried out
phytosociologic studies in Central Europe. In 1858 Kerner was appointed professor of botany at the Polytechnic Institute at Buda, and then in 1860 was appointed professor of
natural history at the
University of Innsbruck
The University of Innsbruck (german: Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck; la, Universitas Leopoldino Franciscea) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669.
...
. He resigned the latter position in 1878 to become professor of systematic botany at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
, and also curator of the
botanical garden there.
Kerner was particularly active in the fields of
phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...
and
phytosociology
Phytosociology, also known as phytocoenology or simply plant sociology, is the study of groups of species of plant that are usually found together. Phytosociology aims to empirically describe the vegetative environment of a given territory. A speci ...
. He died in 1898 in Vienna at the age of 67.
He said "… and years pass by until a second generation
f plantscan develop stronger and richer on the prepared soil; but restless works the plant kingdom and constructs its green building further; on the corpses of perished roots, new, younger plant forms germinate, and so it goes on in tireless change until, finally, the shady treetops of a high forest murmur above a humus rich soil."
[Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer 1863]
Publications
* ''Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer''
''The Background of Plant Ecology'' translated by Henry S. Conard, 1951), Innsbruck, 1863. This book established his reputation and reports on his botanical explorations in
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
.
* ''Die Kultur der Alpenflanzen'', 1864. On the culture of alpine plants.
* ''Die botanischen Gärten'', 1874. A sketch of a model botanical garden.
* ''Vegetationsverhältnisse des mittlern und östlichen Ungarn und Siebenbürgen'', Innsbruck, 1875.
* See als
HTML version One of his most important works.
In 1867, he finished the publication of the results of his studies with respect to the limits of vegetation of more than a thousand species of plants.
See also
*
Frederic Clements
Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of plant ecology and vegetation succession.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University of Nebra ...
*
Eugenius Warming
Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a usurper in the Western Roman Empire (392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targeting p ...
Notes
References
*Knoll, Fritz (1950): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun, ein Erforscher des Pflanzenlebens." in: "Oesterreichische Naturforscher und Techniker" ed. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 216 p.
*Petz-Grabenbauer, Maria, Kiehn, Michael (2004): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun", Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, .
*
External links
*
Petz-Grabenbauer, Maria, Kiehn, Michael (2004): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun" - A new book about Anton Kerner von Marilaun published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (written in German)Obituary of Anton Kerner von Marilaunwritten by
Otto Stapf, Nature 58, 251 - 252 (1898)
Full text of ''The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution:'' from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 1) (1895-96)Full text of ''The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution:'' from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 2) (1895-96)Digitalized books written by Anton Kerner von Marilaun, mostly English translationsPNAS-Artikel written by Thomas Hartmann about the lost origins of chemical ecology in the 19th century (containing a paragraph about Anton Kerner von Marilaun, p. 4542)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerner, Anton
1831 births
1898 deaths
19th-century Austrian botanists
Austrian knights
Academics of the University of Vienna
Academics of the University of Innsbruck
Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala