Lev Semyonovich Berg, also known as Leo S. Berg (; 14 March 1876 – 24 December 1950) was a leading Russian

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, biologist and

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

who served as President of the Soviet Geographical Society between 1940 and 1950. He is known for his own evolutionary theory, nomogenesis (a form of

orthogenesis Orthogenesis, also known as orthogenetic evolution, progressive evolution, evolutionary progress, or progressionism, is an Superseded theories in science, obsolete biological hypothesis that organisms have an innate tendency to evolution, evolve ...

incorporating mutationism) as opposed to the theories of Darwin and

Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolo ...

Life

Lev Berg was born in Bessarabia in a Jewish family, the son of Simon Gregoryevich Berg, a notary, and Klara Lvovna Bernstein-Kogan. He graduated from the Second Kishinev Gymnasium in 1894. Like some of his relatives, Berg converted to Christianity in order to pursue his studies at

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

. At Moscow University, Berg studied hydrobiology and geography. He later studied ichthyology and in 1928 was awarded he was also a member of the

Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...

. Lev Berg graduated from the

in 1898. Between 1903 and 1914, he worked in the Museum of Zoology in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He was one of the founders of the Geographical Institute, now a Faculty of Geography of the Saint Petersburg State University. Berg studied and determined the depth of the lakes of

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

, including Balkhash and

Issyk-Kul Issyk-Kul () or Ysyk-Köl (, ; ) is an endorheic saline lake in the western Tianshan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan, just south of a dividing range separating Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan. It is the eighth-deepest lake in the world, the eleve ...

. He developed Dokuchaev's doctrine of natural zones, which became one of the foundations of the Soviet biology. Among his pioneering monographs on

climatology Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "slope"; and , '' -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. Climate concerns the atmospher ...

were "Climate and Life" (1922) and "Foundations of Climatology" (1927). During his lifetime, Berg was a towering presence in the science of ichthyology. In 1916, he published four volumes of the study of ''Fishes of Russia''. The fourth edition was issued in 1949 as ''Freshwater Fishes of the Soviet Union and Adjacent Countries'' and won him the Stalin Prize. He was said to have discovered the symbiotic relationship between lampreys and

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

. Berg's name is featured in the Latin appellations of more than 60 species of plants and animals. He spent the last two years of his life living in Komarovo. He died on December 24, 1950 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He was buried on the Volkovo Cemetery. In 2001, the Central Bank of Transnistria minted a silver coin honoring this native of today's

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

, as part of a series of commemorative coins called '' The Outstanding People of Pridnestrovie''.

Nomogenesis

Berg is best known for his evolutionary theory called nomogenesis, which was a type of

or mutationism. Berg's ideas were collected in his book ''Nomogenesis; or, Evolution Determined by Law'' and was first published in 1922 in Russia; it was later translated into English in two editions the first appearing in 1926 and the later edition appearing in 1969. In the book Berg collected a large amount of empirical data which offered a strong criticism of Darwin's theory of evolution. Berg's theory of nomogenesis combined arguments from

paleontology Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

and

botany 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 ...

to claim that

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

is not a random process. The theory emphasized the limitations of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

which determine the directionality of evolution. Berg claimed that the variation of characters in

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

is confined within certain limits due to both internal and external factors. The limitation of the variability, Berg argued, left hardly any space for natural selection; he claimed this was supported by the paleontological record because all the

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

branches look more or less like straight lines. Berg distanced himself from both Darwinism and

Lamarckism Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is also calle ...

. Instead he proposed the mutationist concept of directed mass

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, ...

s as the main mechanism for directing evolution. Influenced by the paleontologist Wilhelm Waagen, he labeled the directed mutations ''Waagen-Mutations'': "New species arise by means of mass transformation of a great number of individuals, which happens due to Waagen mutations... This mass transformation is a phenomenon of geological magnitude. It is connected with the alteration of the fauna of a certain horizon and comes about in certain periods only to be absent for a long time" Thus Berg claimed evolution was caused by mass mutations, which are directed by internal and external factors, so that new species occur with a high probability of being almost perfectly adapted. According to Berg, newly evolved species beget the subordinate taxonomic categories, and appear to be perfectly adapted to their environments. Although Berg's theory was anti-Darwinian, and anti-Lamarckian, it still advocated adaptive evolution. J. B. S. Haldane called ''Nomogenesis'' "by far the best anti-Darwinian book of this century".

Personal life

In 1910, Berg married fellow Bendery native Polina Abramovna Kotlovker. They separated shortly after the birth of their second child and though Polina sued, the Russian Orthodox Church granted custody to her Christian husband. Berg's mother helped raise the children, Simon (born 1911) and Raissa (born 1913). Berg married Maria Mikhailovna Ivanova, the daughter of a ship's commander, in 1923.

Honours

Berg was honored for a lifetime of scientific achievement by the Imperial Russian Geographical Society and presented with the P. P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Gold Medal. The Berg Mountains in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, Cape Berg in Severnaya Zemlya and Cape Berg in Zemlya Georga were named after him. The research ship ''Lev Berg'', named after him, currently rests on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea. In 1971, it was involved in the Aral smallpox incident.

Taxon named in his honor

*'' Bathyraja bergi'', the bottom skate, is a

of skate in the family Arhynchobatidae found in the north-western Pacific Ocean.

Works

*''Nomogenesis; or, Evolution Determined by Law'' (1922) * ''"Fresh-water

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

es of Russia"'' (1923) * ''Discovery of Kamchatka and Bering's Kamchatka Voyages'' (1924) * ''Russian discoveries in the Pacific'' (1926) * ''"Principles of

"'' (1927) (reprinted 1938) * ''Geographical zones of the U.S.S.R.'' (1937) * ''"Freshwater fishes of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries. Volume 1-3. Israel Program for Scientific Translations Ltd, Jerusalem. 1962-65 (Russian version published 1948-49)."'' * ''"Natural regions of the U.S.S.R."'' (1950) * ''"

Classification Classification is the activity of assigning objects to some pre-existing classes or categories. This is distinct from the task of establishing the classes themselves (for example through cluster analysis). Examples include diagnostic tests, identif ...

of fishes, both recent and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

"'' (1940) * ''Loess as a product of weathering and soil formation''

Taxa described by him

*See :Taxa named by Lev Berg

Eponymous taxa

*The Tropical lanternbelly, '' Acropoma leobergi'' is a species of the genus '' Acropoma'' described as having a luminous behind the anus that resembles a "U" in shape. The species is native to the Arafura Sea. *The Bottom skate, '' Bathyraja bergi'' Dolganov, 1983, is a

of skate in the family Arhynchobatidae found in the Northwest

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Lev Semenovich 1876 births 1950 deaths People from Bender, Moldova People from Bendersky Uyezd Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Saint Petersburg State University Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Bessarabian Jews Jewish Russian scientists Ichthyologists from the Russian Empire Soviet zoologists 19th-century explorers from the Russian Empire Geographers from the Russian Empire Soviet biologists Soviet geographers Evolutionary biologists Zoologists from the Russian Empire History of evolutionary biology Orthogenesis Russian scientists Burials at Volkovo Cemetery