Carsten Erik Olsen (1 March 1891 – 19 August 1974) was a Danish plant ecologist and plant physiologist, who pioneered the study of

plant nutrition Plant nutrition is the study of the chemical elements and compounds necessary for plant growth and reproduction, plant metabolism and their external supply. In its absence the plant is unable to complete a normal life cycle, or that the element i ...

in soils of different pH.

Biography

He was born in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and began studies of

botany 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 w ...

at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

in 1910, at first with professor

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 ...

, then with professor Christen Raunkiær. His doctoral dissertation (1921) was on the influence of soil pH on the natural distribution of plants. He was then employed by the

Carlsberg Laboratory The Carlsberg Research Laboratory is a private scientific research center in Copenhagen, Denmark under the Carlsberg Group. It was founded in 1875 by J. C. Jacobsen, the founder of the Carlsberg brewery, with the purpose of advancing biochemica ...

as an assistant to the chemist

S. P. L. Sørensen Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen (9 January 1868 – 12 February 1939) was a Denmark, Danish chemist, famous for the introduction of the concept of pH, a scale for measuring acidity and Base (chemistry), alkalinity. Personal life Sørensen w ...

, later in his own lab. There, he worked on plant uptake of ions, especially

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

nitrogen fixation Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular nitrogen (), with a strong triple covalent bond, in the air is converted into ammonia () or related nitrogenous compounds, typically in soil or aquatic systems but also in industry. Atmo ...

and calcicolous plants.

Scientific works by Carsten Olsen

* Olsen, C. (1914) Vegetationen i nordsjællandske Sphagnummoser.

Botanisk Tidsskrift ''Botanisk Tidsskrift'' (standard abbreviation ''Bot. Tidsskr.'') was a Danish mixed scientific and amateur journal concerning botany, issued in Copenhagen by the Danish Botanical Society. It was published from 1866 to 1980, when it fused with Bot ...

34, 1-44. * Olsen, C. (1914) The structure and biology of Arctic flowering plants. 9. Cornaceae.

Meddelelser om Grønland ''Meddelelser om Grønland'' ("''Communications on Greenland''") is a Danish scientific periodical which publishes scientific results from all fields of research on Greenland. It was established by Frederik Johnstrup and published as a single seri ...

37, 127-150. * Olsen, Carsten Erik (1916) Morfologisk, biologisk og formationsstatistisk Undersøgelse af Mosserne og Karplanterne i de danske Egeskoves og Egekrats Bundflora. Gold medal prize dissertation,

, 1916. 204 pp. * Olsen, C. (1917) Studier over Epifyt-Mossernes Indvandringsfølge (Succession) paa Barken af vore forskellige Træer, samt et Bidrag til disse Mossers Økologi ng. summ.

34, 313-342. * Olsen, C. (1921) The concentration of hydrogen ions in the soil. ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'' 54 (1405), 539-541

* Olsen, C. (1921) The ecology of Urtica dioica.

Journal of Ecology The ''Journal of Ecology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of the ecology of plants. It was established in 1913 and is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the British Ecological Society. The journal publ ...

9, 1-17

* Olsen, C. (1923) Studies on the hydrogen ion concentration of the soil and its significance to the vegetation, especially to the natural distribution of plants. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 15 (1), 1-166. Translation of Doctoral Thesis, University of Copenhagen, 1921. * Olsen, C. & Linderstrøm-Lang, K. (1927) On the accuracy of the various methods of measuring concentration of Hydrogen ions in soil. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 17 (1), 1-27. * Olsen, C. (1929) On the determination of nitrogen in soils: with special reference to the presence of nitrates and nitrites. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 17 (3), 1-13. * Olsen, C. (1928) On the significance of hydrogen-ion concentration for the cycle of nitrogen transformation in the soil. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 17 (8), 1-21. * Olsen, C. (1929) On the analytical determination of ammonia in soil, and the adsorption power of soil for ammonia. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 17 (15), 1-20. * Olsen, C. (1929) On the influence of humus substances on the growth of green plants in water culture. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 18 (1), 1-16. * Olsen, C. (1932) Studier on nitrogen fixation. I. Nitrogen fixation in the dead leaves of forest beds. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 19 (9), 1-36. * Olsen, C. (1934) The absorption of manganese by plants. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 20, 1-34. * Olsen, C. (1934) Über Manganaufnahme der Pflanzen. Biochem. Zeitschr., 269, 329-348. * Olsen, C. (1935) Iron absorption and chlorosis in green plants. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 21, 15-52. * Olsen, C. (1936) The absorption of manganese by plants. II. Toxicity of manganese to various plant species. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg, 21, 129-146. * Olsen, C. (1937) Über die Anwendbarkeit des Kjeldahlschen Stickstoffbestimmungsverfahrens bei biologischen Untersuchungen. Biochem. Zeitschr., 291, 178-187. * Hevesy, G., Linderstrøm-Lang, K., & Olsen, C. (1937) Exchange of phosphorus atoms in plants and seeds. '' Nature (journal), Nature'' 139, 149-150. * Olsen, C. (1938) Experiments with different quantities of iron salts given to maize in water culture. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 21, 301-313. * Olsen, C. (1938) Growth of Deschampsia flexuosa in culture solutions (water culture experiments) and in soils with different pH values. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 22, 405. * Olsen, C. (1938) Undersøgelser over Bundfloraen i danske Egeskove og Egekrat.

44, 367-432. * Olsen, C. (1939) Absorption of calcium and formation of oxalic acid in higher green plants. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 23 (8), 101-123. * Hevesy, G., Linderstrøm-Lang, K., Keston, A.S. & Olsen, C. (1940) Exchange of Nitrogen atoms in the leaves of sunflower. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 23, 213-218. * Olsen, C. (1942) Water culture experiments with higher green plants in nutrient solutions having different concentrations of calcium. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 24 (4), 1-29. * Olsen, C. (1942) On the chlorophyll content of sun leaves and shade leaves of beech (Fagus silvatica). Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 24 (5), 1-5. * Olsen, C. (1943) Natural glades in beech-wood on calcareous soil. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 24, 315-332. * Olsen, C. (1946) Forandringer i Maglemoses Mosvegetation siden 1913-14.

46, 347-383. * Olsen, C. (1948). The mineral, nitrogen and sugar contents of beech leaves and beech leaf sap at various times. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 26, 197-230. * Olsen, C. (1948). Adsorptively bound potassium in beech leaves. Physiologia Plantarum, 1, 136-141. * Olsen, C. (1950) The significance of concentration for the rate of ion absorption by higher plants in water culture. Physiologia Plantarum, 3, 152-164. * Olsen, C. (1953) The significance of concentration for the rate of ion absorption by higher plants in water culture. II. Experiments with aquatic plants. Physiologia Plantarum, 6, 837-843. * Olsen, C. (1953) The significance of concentration for the rate of ion absorption by higher plants in water culture. III. The importance of stirring. Physiologia Plantarum, 6, 844-847. * Olsen, C. (1953) The significance of concentration for the rate of ion absorption by higher plants in water culture. IV. The influence of hydrogen ion concentration. Physiologia Plantarum, 6, 848-858. * Olsen, C. (1954) Hvilke betingelser må være opfyldte, for at Helodea canadensis kan opnå den optimale udvikling, der er årsag til dens massevise optræden i naturen ng. summ.

51, 263-273. * Olsen, C. (1958) Iron absorption in different plant species as a function of the pH value of the solution. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 31 (4), 1-59. * Olsen, C. (1958) Iron uptake in different plant species as a function of the pH value of the nutrient solution. Physiologia Plantarum, 11, 889-905. * Olsen, C. (1961) Competition between trees and herbs for nutrient elements in calcareous soil. Symposium of the Society for Experimental Botany (Cambridge), 15, 145-155. * Olsen, C. (1970) On biological nitrogen fixation in nature, particularly in blue-green algae. Comptes Rendus des Travaux du Laboratoire Carlsberg. Série Chimique, 37 (12), 269-283.

References

Other sources

* Obituary in

70 (1): 98-100 (1973) by E. Bille Hansen.

External links

Carl Erik Olsen research while affiliated with University of Copenhagen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Carsten 1891 births 1974 deaths 20th-century Danish botanists Danish ecologists University of Copenhagen alumni Carlsberg Laboratory staff Plant ecologists Plant physiologists