Henry C Cowles in the Santa Catalina Mountains Arizona 1913

Henry Chandler Cowles (February 27, 1869 – September 12, 1939) was an American botanist and

ecological Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

pioneer (see History of ecology). A professor at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, he studied ecological succession in the

Indiana Dunes Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation ...

of Northwest Indiana.Smith, S. & Mark, S. (2009)
The Historical Roots of the Nature Conservancy in the Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Region: From Science to Preservation
. The South Shore Journal, 3. This led to efforts to preserve the Indiana Dunes. One of Cowles' students, O. D. Frank continued his research.

Life and work

Born in Kensington,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, Cowles attended Oberlin College in

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He studied at the

with the plant taxonomist John M. Coulter and the geologist

Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (; September 25, 1843 – November 15, 1928) was an American geologist and educator. In 1893 he founded the '' Journal of Geology'', of which he was editor for many years. Biography Chamberlin was born September 25, 18 ...

as main teachers. He obtained his PhD in 1898 for his study of vegetation succession on the Lake Michigan sand dunes. The inspiration to these studies came from reading ''

Plantesamfund ''Plantesamfund - Grundtræk af den økologiske Plantegeografi'', published in Danish in 1895 by Eugen Warming, and in English in 1909 as ''Oecology of Plants: An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities'', by Warming and Martin Vahl, was th ...

'' by the Danish botanist and pioneer ecologist Eugen Warming. Cowles studied Danish to be able to read the original and later (1905) visited Warming 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 ...

. The translation of Warming's term into English as "Oecology" led to Cowles becoming one of the primary popularizers of the term

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

in the United States. Cowles was one of the founding members of the

Ecological Society of America The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching resources. I ...

in 1915. Cowles married Elizabeth Waller in 1900, and their daughter Harriet was born in 1912.

Legacy

One of Cowles's field study locations is now named ''Cowles Bog'' in his honor; Cowles Bog and nearby dune locations were later preserved for the public as part of the

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation ...

(national park as of February 2019). Cowles Bog is located west of Mineral Springs Road in the Town of Dune Acres, Indiana. Among Cowles's students who advanced American ecology were Victor E. Shelford, William Skinner Cooper, Paul B. Sears,

George Damon Fuller George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

, Walter P. Cottam, Arthur G. Vestal and

May Theilgaard Watts May Petrea Theilgaard Watts (1 May 1893 – 20 August 1975) was an American naturalist, writer, poet, illustrator, and educator. She was a naturalist at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, and author of ''Reading the Landscape of America''. ...

. Cowles also served as a special field assistant of the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

Works

His publications include:
''Ecological Relations of the Vegetation on the Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan''
(1899)
''Text-Book of Botany'', Volume II: Ecology
(1910) (with John Merle Coulter (Volume I, Part I: Morphology) and Charles Reid Barnes (Volume I, Part II: Physiology)
''Plant Societies of Chicago and Vicinity''
(1901)

References

External links

Henry C. Cowles, University of Chicago.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowles, Henry Chandler American botanists American ecologists Ecological succession People from Kensington, Connecticut Oberlin College alumni University of Chicago alumni 1869 births 1939 deaths Presidents of the American Association of Geographers

Life and work

Legacy

Works

See also

References

External links