Göte Wilhelm Turesson (6 April 1892 – 30 December 1970) was a Swedish evolutionary

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

who made significant contributions to ecological genetics, and coined the terms

ecotype Ecotypes are organisms which belong to the same species but possess different phenotypical features as a result of environmental factors such as elevation, climate and predation. Ecotypes can be seen in wide geographical distributions and may event ...

and

agamospecies In botany, apomixis is asexual development of seed or embryo without fertilization. However, other definitions include replacement of the seed by a plantlet or replacement of the flower by bulbils. Apomictically produced offspring are genetic ...

. He conducted extensive work to demonstrate that there is a genetic basis to the differentiation of plant populations. This work stood in sharp contrast to most researchers at the time, who believed that the differentiation of plant populations was due to phenotypic plasticity. Further, Turesson came to the conclusion that differentiation of plant populations was largely driven by natural selection. His work on locally adapted plant populations led him to coin the term "

" in 1922.

Life

Turesson was born in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

to schoolmaster Jöns Turesson and wife Sofie née Nilsson.Vem Är Vem - Skåne, Halland, Blekinge (ed. Åke Davidsson), 2nd edn. Bokförlaget Vem är vem, Stockholm, 1966; p
830
/ref> He completed his initial science studies in the United States at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

, obtaining his B.S. in 1914 and

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

in 1915. He returned to Sweden, receiving his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

in 1923. He was a lecturer at

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

until 1927, eventually taking a position as professor of

systematic botany ''Systematic Botany'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the study of systematic botany. It is published quarterly by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2010 i ...

and

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 Augustinians, Augustinian ...

at the

Agricultural College This article lists agricultural universities and colleges around the world, by continent and country. Africa Algeria * Higher National Agronomic School (French name: Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique) Benin * Agricultural University ...

Ultuna Ultuna () is a locality in Uppsala Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden with 449 inhabitants in 2017. Located south of central Uppsala, it hosts the headquarters and main campus of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lan ...

outside

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

(since 1977 the main campus of the

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, or Swedish Agricultural University (, SLU) is a public research university in Sweden. Although its main campus and head office is located in Ultuna, Uppsala, the university has several campuses ...

), where he remained from 1935 to 1958.

Awards

Honorary member of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 1934, ''Lund Botanical Society'' 1953, ''Genetics Society of Japan'' 1958 and the ''Mendelian Society in Lund'' 1960. Corresponding member of the Societas zoologica-botanica Fennica Vanamo 1945. He was elected member of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund 1939, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry 1945, the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala 1945 and doctor honoris cause at

upon his retirement in 1957. He was awarded the honorary medal of

Christian X of Denmark Christian X (; 26 September 1870 – 20 April 1947) was King of Denmark from 1912 until his death in 1947, and the only King of Iceland as Kristján X, holding the title as a result of the personal union between Denmark and independent Icel ...

. He was awarded the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...

's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958.

Legacy

Turesson's ideas and findings have had a lasting effect on

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

of plants. At the main campus of the

, one may still see a long row of

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

trees of provenances ranging from

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

to Lappland, planted by Turesson. Spectacularly, bud burst in spring starts in the end of the southern provenances and proceeds 'northwards', while autumn leaf colouring and senescence starts in the northern provenances and proceeds 'southwards'. Thus, Turesson continues to remind SLU students that

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

has a genetic basis and that local adaption may be revealed in common garden experiments.

Selected bibliography

*Turesson, G. (1914)
Slope exposure as a factor in the distribution of Pseudotsuga taxifolia in arid parts of Washington
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 41 (6): 337-345. *Turesson, G. (1922a). The species and variety as ecological units.

Hereditas ''Hereditas'' (not to be confused with another journal called ''Heredity'') is a scientific journal concerning genetics. It has been published since 1920 by the Mendelska sällskapet i Lund (Mendelian Society of Lund). In its long history it has p ...

3: 100-113. *Turesson, G. (1922b). The genotypical response of the plant species to the habitat.

3: 211-350. *Turesson, G. (1925). The plant species in relation to habitat and climate.

6: 147-236.

References

Smith, C. H. (2005) Turesson biographical sketch
*Briggs, D and Walters, SM. (1997). Plant variation and evolution, 3rd edition, pp. 167–174. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK.
Müntzing, Arne (1971) Göte Turesson. Taxon 20:773-775
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turesson, Gote 1892 births 1970 deaths 20th-century Swedish botanists Evolutionary biologists Population geneticists University of Washington alumni Lund University alumni Academic staff of Lund University Academic staff of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Members of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund Washington State University alumni People from Malmö