August Friedrich Thienemann (7 September 1882 in

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

– 22 April 1960 in

Plön Plön (; ) is the district seat of the Plön district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, and has about 8,700 inhabitants. It lies right on the shores of Schleswig-Holstein's biggest lake, the Great Plön Lake, as well as on several smaller lakes, ...

) was a German

limnologist Limnology ( ; ) is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems. It includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristics of fresh and saline, natural and man-made bodies of water. This includes the study of lakes, ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

and

ecologist Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...

. He studied

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 ...

at the

University of Greifswald The University of Greifswald (; ), formerly known as Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, is a public research university located in Greifswald, Germany, in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Founded in 1456, it is one of th ...

. He was an associate Professor of Hydrobiology at the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian Albrecht University of Kiel, (, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the ''Academia Holsator ...

, and director of the former Hydrobiologische Anstalt der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft (now the Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie) at Plön. A co-founder of Societas Internationalis Limnologiae, Thienemann is best known for his work on the

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

of the

Chironomidae Chironomidae , commonly known as non-biting midges or chironomids , are a family of Nematoceran flies with a global distribution. They are closely related to the families Ceratopogonidae, Simuliidae, and Thaumaleidae. Although many chironomid ...

, and his contributions to the field of

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

typology. He also introduced the concept of

trophic level The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. Within a food web, a food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the ...

terminology in 1920. The

Ecological niche In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition. Three variants of ecological niche are described by It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources an ...

: ‘Only those organisms can be present in a biocoenosis that are adapted to the living conditions of the respective biocoenosis; they must be able to live their lives under the special chemical and physical as well as ecological conditions of the respective biotope. Over the course of his career, Thienemann published 460 works. One of his more noted students was Carmel Humphries, an Irish expert in

Publications (partial list)

*1909 B. Farwick, F. Schröder, A. Thienemann: "Bericht über die botanischen und zoologischen Exkursionen nach dem Weißenstein bei Hohenlimburg und nach der Glörtalsperre am 25. und 26. September 1909." ''S.-B. naturhist. Ver. preuß. Rheinl. Westf''., E 1909: 94–101. *1910 "Die Stufenfolge der Dinge: Der Versuch eines natürlichen Systems der Naturkörper aus dem 18. Jahrhundert." ''Zoologische Annalen Würzburg'' 3, 185–274. *1911 "Hydrobiologische und fischereiliche Untersuchungen an westfälischen Talsperren." ''Z. wiss. Landwirtsch''., 41: 535–716. Steglitz. 371. *1911 "Die Verschmutzung der Ruhr im Sommer 1911", in: ''Zeitschrift für Fischerei und deren Hilfswissenschaften'' 16 (1912), S. 55–86. *1912 "Der Bergbach des Sauerlandes. Faunistisch-biolozische Untersuchungen." ''Int. Rev. Ges. Hydrobiol. Biol''./ Suppl. 4: 1–125. Leipzig. *1915 Die Chironomidenfauna der Eifelmaare; Verhandlungen des Naturhistorischen Vereins der preußischen Rheinlande und Westfalens 71 *1918 Untersuchungen über de Beziehung zwischen dem Sauerstoffgehalt des Wassers und der Zusammensetzung der Fauna in norddeutschen Seen"; ''Arch. Hydrobiol''. 12, 1 - 65. *1923 "Geschichte der 'Chironomus'-Forschung von Aristoteles bis zur Gegenwart." ''Deutsche Entomologische Zeitung'', 515– 540. *1925 ''Die Binnengewässer Mitteleuropas''; Stuttgart *1927 "Forschungsreisen und das System der Biologie." ''Zoologische Anzeiger'' 73, 245–253. *1928 Der Sauerstoff im eutrophen und oligotrophen See; Die Binnengewässer 4, Stuttgart *1931 Der Produktionsbegriff in der Biologie; ''Arch. Hydrobiol''. 22, 616–622. *1939 Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Ökologie; ebda 35 *1941 ''Leben und Umwelt;'' Leipzig *1951 "Vom Gebrauch und vom Mißbrauch der Gewässer in einem Kulturlande." ''Arch. Hydrobiol''. 45, 557–583. *1954 "Lebenseinheiten." ''Abhandlungen des naturwissenschaftlichen Vereins Bremen'' 33, 303–326. *1955 ''Die Binnengewässer: Eine Einführung in die theoretische und angewandte Limnologie''; Verständliche Wissenschaft 55, Berlin, Heidelberg und Jena. *1956 ''Leben und Umwelt: Vom Gesamthaushalt der Natur''; Hamburg *1956 ''Die Binnengewässer''; Stuttgart *1959 ''Erinnerungen und Tagebuchblätter eines Biologen; Ein Leben im Dienste der Limnologie''; Stuttgart

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thienemann, August German ecologists 20th-century German zoologists German limnologists 1882 births 1960 deaths Academic staff of the University of Münster People from Gotha (town) People from Saxe-Gotha Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Max Planck Institute directors Academic staff of the University of Kiel University of Greifswald alumni