Leslie Ransselaer Holdridge (September 29, 1907 – June 19, 1999) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 climatologist. He was the father of composer

Lee Holdridge Lee Elwood Holdridge (born March 3, 1944) is a Haitian-born American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. A 18-time Emmy Award nominee, he has won two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Daytime Emmy Awards, two News & Documentary Emmy Awards, and one ...

as well as the father of Leslie A. Holdridge, Lorena Holdridge, Marbella Holdridge, Marly Holdridge, Marisela Holdridge, Thania Holdridge, John Holdridge, Ida Holdridge, Reuseland Holdridge, Leythy J. Holdridge and youngest son Gregory Holdridge whom he fathered with Costa Rican Clara Luz Melendez.

Career

In his famous 1947 paper, he defined "life zones" using three indicators: # Mean annual biotemperature (average temperature, after data values below 0 °C or above 30 °C have been eliminated) # Total annual

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

# The ratio of mean annual potential

evapotranspiration Evapotranspiration (ET) is the combined processes by which water moves from the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. It covers both water evaporation (movement of water to the air directly from soil, canopies, and water bodies) and transp ...

to mean total annual precipitation. Holdridge participated in the Cinchona Missions, a United States effort to search for natural sources of

quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.Steere, W. (1945). The Cinchona-Bark Industry of South America. The Scientific Monthly, 61(2), 114-126. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/18623

References

1907 births 1999 deaths American climatologists 20th-century American botanists University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment alumni People from Ledyard, Connecticut {{US-botanist-stub

Career

See also

References