George Evelyn Hutchinson (January 30, 1903 – May 17, 1991) was a British ecologist sometimes described as the "father of modern ecology." He contributed for more than sixty years to the fields of
limnology
Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteris ...
,
systems ecology
Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, a subset of Earth system science, that takes a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general syst ...
, radiation ecology,
entomology
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as ara ...
,
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar work ...
,
biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry is the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere ...
, a mathematical theory of population growth, art history, philosophy, religion, and anthropology.
He worked on the passage of phosphorus through lakes, the chemistry and biology of lakes, the theory of
interspecific competition
Interspecific competition, in ecology, is a form of competition in which individuals of ''different'' species compete for the same resources in an ecosystem (e.g. food or living space). This can be contrasted with mutualism, a type of symbiosis. ...
, and on insect taxonomy and genetics, zoo-geography and African water bugs.
He is known as one of the first to combine ecology with mathematics. He became an international expert on lakes and wrote the four-volume ''Treatise on Limnology'' in 1957.
Hutchinson earned his degree in zoology from
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
but chose not to earn a doctorate, of which he came to be proud as he aged. Although born in England, he spent nearly his entire professional life at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
in the United States where he was
Sterling Professor of Zoology and focused on working with graduate students.
Early life and education
Hutchinson was born in 1903 to
Arthur
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more wi ...
and Evaline D. Hutchinson. He grew up in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England. His father was a mineralogist at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Hutchinson grew up surrounded by intellectuals, including two of Darwin's sons. By the age of five, Hutchinson was already collecting aquatic creatures and studying their preferred living environment in aquariums that he manufactured himself. He had a younger brother and a younger sister. He had his early education at Saint Faith's. He went on in 1917 to study at
Gresham's School
Gresham's School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in Holt, Norfolk, England, one of the top thirty International Baccalaureate schools in England.
The school was founded in 1555 by Sir John Gresham as a free g ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nor ...
. Gresham's was unique in not focusing on the classics, but including more intensive studies of mathematics and science, along with modern languages and history. It was here that he began to notice that organisms had different chemical environments. Hutchinson was admitted to read zoology at
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...
, graduating in 1925.
Personal life
Hutchinson married three times. His first wife was
Grace Pickford. Grace was also Cambridge educated, she became a well known scientist as well. They were married from 1931 to 1933, when they agreed to a divorce.
[Lawrence B. Slobodkin and Nancy G. Slack]
"George Evelyn Hutchinson: 20th Century Ecologist"
''Endeavour'', v.23, n.1 (1999).
He met his second wife, Margaret Seal, while on a boat returning to England from India. She was a musician and they shared an appreciation for music, literature, and art. They were married for fifty years, with no children. She died of
Alzheimer's
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...
in 1983. Hutchinson's third marriage occurred while he was into his eighties to Anne Twitty, a biologist of Haitian descent. He survived all three of his wives and died in London, May 17, 1991.
Beginning of professional career
After graduating, he went to Italy to study octopuses. Next he travelled to South Africa where he discovered the field of limnology or the study of freshwater systems, on the shallow lakes near
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
. He became an international expert on lakes and wrote a four-volume Treatise on Limnology, with the first volume published in 1957. He took a position teaching zoology at Yale University in 1928. He travelled widely, reaching underexplored parts of the world and writing his first book on the ecology of high-elevation lakes in India. At Yale his graduate students influenced him to research new areas.
Research
Italy
At the age of twenty-two, on graduating from Cambridge, Hutchinson traveled to Italy on a Rockefeller Higher Education Fellowship to work at the Stazione Zoologica. He was interested in doing research on the branchial gland of the octopus. He wanted to establish endocrine function in higher invertebrates. He thought that the branchial gland was the
endocrine gland
Endocrine glands are ductless glands of the endocrine system that secrete their products, hormones, directly into the blood. The major glands of the endocrine system include the pineal gland, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries, testes, thy ...
in the octopus, but an octopus shortage put an end to his research. He returned to Italy many times for Italian art, folklore, and to study his Italian ancestry.
South Africa
In 1926 he applied for a lectureship at the
University of Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...
in Johannesburg. He lectured for two years before he was fired, but he continued to study the South African water bugs. When he began his research there were fourteen known species and when he concluded his research there were nearly forty. It was here that Hutchinson discovered
limnology
Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteris ...
, or the study of fresh waters. Along with
Grace Pickford, he studied the chemistry and biology of the coastal lakes. He was greatly interested in limnology due to it combining of all his interests such as natural history, aquatic invertebrates, and chemistry. He was drawn to the differences in the chemistry, flora, and fauna in the different water sources. While in South Africa in the late 1920s he frequently visited the southeastern portion of the country, in particular conducting biology and chemistry research in
Morgans Bay and
St Lucia
Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindi ...
, he also spent a lot of time around the
Sani Pass
Sani Pass is a mountain pass located in the West of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on the road between Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal and Mokhotlong, Lesotho. The pass traverses the Great Escarpment of southern Africa in its highest region, the Drak ...
and the
Drakensberg Mountains
The Drakensberg (Afrikaans: Drakensberge, Zulu: uKhahlambha, Sotho: Maluti) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, which encloses the central Southern African plateau. The Great Escarpment reaches its greatest elevation – within t ...
as well as the area around
Royal Natal National Park
Royal Natal National Park is a park in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa and forms part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. Notwithstanding the name, it is actually not a South African National Park managed by the SANPark ...
. He became somewhat of a minor celebrity in
Natal
NATAL or Natal may refer to:
Places
* Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil
* Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa
** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843)
** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...
during this time.
India
In 1932 Hutchinson joined the Yale North India Expedition. He wanted to be the first to make ecological observations of a high-altitude lake, and to compare these with lower-altitude lakes. The work yielded insights into biogeography and new data on high elevation limnology. Most lakes had no fish, and crustaceans were the top predators. In letters to his wife, he described the different water chemistry from the Indian lakes to the South African lakes. He collected hundreds of specimens for analysis by specialists. This expedition provided the material for his first book, ''The Clear Mirror'', in which he described the colors, organisms, ecology, and the people of the
Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu ...
.
Limnology and trophic dynamic energy flow
Most of Hutchinson's contributions to American limnology came from research at Linsley Pond in Connecticut. Studies were done on small lakes, such as chemical stratification, oxygen deficits, productivity, and the ecological significance of the oxidation-reduction potential of lake waters. His four volume ''Treatise on Limnology'' became a standard for limnology students. Hutchinson expanded the field of limnology, especially in its ecological and biogeochemical aspects. He advocated the use of statistical and mathematical methods in limnology. His postdoctoral associate
Raymond Lindeman
Raymond Laurel Lindeman (1915 – June 29, 1942) was an ecologist whose graduate research is credited with being a seminal study in the field of ecosystem ecology, specifically on the topic of trophic dynamics.
Graduate research work
Lindeman ...
furthered Hutchinson's model of the trophic dynamic concept. Together they looked at energy flows through the lake in the trophic levels of ecosystems.
They followed the energy using Hutchinson's notation system in which each organism was given an integer to mark how many organisms the energy had to go through in order to reach it, this was designated as its trophic level. It then became possible to measure the efficiency of a given system, or the energy losses between ascending trophic levels.
[
]
Radioisotopes
Hutchinson is also recognized as being the first to use radioisotopes as tracers in field experiments. In doing so he along with his graduate student Vaughan Bowen, are credited with creating Radiation Ecology, a brand new major field of ecology. He again turned to Linsley Pond, he released twenty-four portions in two lines and dispersed it uniformly across the water, a week later they collected water across different depths in the lake. They then evaporated and measured the radioactivity, what they found they deemed to be statistically significant. The rest was found to have been taken up by the aquatic plants in the shallow water area of the lake.
Ecology
Hutchinson and his graduate students intellectualized American ecology by "forcing its practitioners to confront all of the processes that maintain to change ecological systems, whether these processes were biological, physical or geological".[ He built on Charles Elton's idea of an ecological niche. He defined it as "a highly abstract multi-dimensional hyperspace in which the organism's needs and properties were defined as dimensions."][ Hutchinson created the idea of "Circular Causal Systems", the tight link between biological and physical processes, and that the activity of organisms balanced the effects on the cycles of chemicals through organisms. He said that the changes in biological productivity were related to the changes of available nutrients. He stated that the condition in which organisms existed were systems of ]feedback loops
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
. In his systems view, there were both living and non-living feedback systems which followed the same mechanical principles. This led to the development of systems ecology by his student H.T. Odum.
Legacy
Due to Hutchinson, the European attitudes towards ecology entered America. Before Hutchinson, ecology and natural history were considered identical. After Hutchinson it became legitimate to study the physical and chemical properties of ecosystems in their own right. Hutchinson also raised the idea of climate change 30 years before the problem became popular. He taught his students as early as 1947 that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...
would lead to a global temperature increase. He considered the causes and preventatives for extinction, resource management, and the social anthropology of endangered cultures decades before they were attracting attention as crises.[ He influenced many different areas of ecology, contributing to his designation as the "Father of Modern Ecology". His many graduate students went on to careers in ecology. He was the first to describe and resolve the ]paradox of the plankton
In aquatic biology, the paradox of the plankton describes the situation in which a limited range of resources supports an unexpectedly wide range of plankton species, apparently flouting the competitive exclusion principle which holds that whe ...
in 1961. Upon his death, Yvette H. Edmondson noted "The era that ended with G.E. Hutchinson's death was not only that of a thoughtful man and the growth of a science imprinted by his thinking. Even more sadly, we may be seeing the end of an intellectual climate in which the sparking mind of one individual can so illuminate a science. Science by committee casts a very different light." In 1982, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, now called the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography
The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), formerly known as the Limnological Society of America and the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, is a scientific society established in 1936 with the goal of advan ...
, honored Hutchinson by creating the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award, one of the Society's major awards that is given annually to recognize excellence in any aspect of limnology or oceanography.
Awards
In 1949, Hutchinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
and in 1950 to the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 1952 Leidy Award The Leidy Award is a medal and prize presented by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after US palaeontologist Joseph Leidy. T ...
from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. He was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal
The Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences "for meritorious work in zoology or paleontology study published in a three- to five-year period." Named after Daniel Giraud Elliot, it was first awarded in 1917.
...
from the National Academy of Sciences in 1984. He was elected to the Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 1983, awarded the Kyoto Prize
The is Japan's highest private award for lifetime achievement in the arts and sciences. It is given not only to those that are top representatives of their own respective fields, but to "those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, ...
in 1986, and posthumously the National Medal of Science
The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...
in 1991.
Publications
*''The Clear Mirror'' (1936)
*''The Itinerant Ivory Tower'' (1953)
*''A Preliminary List of the Writings of Rebecca West, 1912–51'' (1957)
*''A Treatise on Limnology'' (1957, 1967, 1975, 1993)
::Vol. I ''Geography, Physics and Chemistry'' (1957)
::Vol. II ''Introduction to Lake Biology and the Limnoplankton'' (1967)
::Vol. III ''Limnological Botany'' (1975)
::Vol. IV ''The Zoobenthos'' (1993)
*''The Enchanted Voyage'' (1962)
*''The Ecological Theater and the Evolutionary Play'' (1965)
*''An Introduction to Population Ecology'' (1978)
*''The Kindly Fruits of the Earth: Recollections of an Embryo Ecologist'' (1979)
See also
* Hutchinson's ratio In ecological theory, the Hutchinson's ratio is the ratio of the size differences between similar species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A ...
* Hutchinson's rule
Notes
References
*
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
Guide to the G. Evelyn Hutchinson papers at Yale University
* ttp://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041642 Encyclopædia Britannica Online: G. Evelyn Hutchinson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchinson, G. Evelyn
20th-century American zoologists
American ecologists
Mathematical ecologists
English emigrants to the United States
English ecologists
Kyoto laureates in Basic Sciences
National Medal of Science laureates
People educated at Gresham's School
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
1903 births
1991 deaths
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
20th-century British zoologists
Theoretical biologists
American limnologists
English limnologists
Yale Sterling Professors