Charles Joseph Krebs (born 17 September 1936) is a

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

population ecology Population ecology is a sub-field of ecology that deals with the dynamics of species populations and how these populations interact with the environment (biophysical), environment, such as birth rate, birth and death rates, and by immigration an ...

in the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

Department of Zoology. He is also Thinker-in-residence at the Institute for Applied Ecology at the

University of Canberra The University of Canberra (UC) is a public university, public research university with its main campus located in Bruce, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The campus is from Belconnen Town Centre, and from Canberra's Civic, Australian ...

, Australia. He is renowned for his work on the fence effect, as well as his widely used ecology textbook ''Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance''.

Research

Krebs was interested mostly in smaller mammal ecology and in 1965 conducted an experiment on voles.GCS Research Society. 2015. Science.ca. http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=11 He fenced in an area of grassland in an Indiana pasture about the size of a soccer field and observed what happened to the population of voles living inside the fenced area. This was when he founded the widely known "Fence Effect". Within a year of living in the fenced area the voles had increased by about five times, which is much more than they would in an unfenced area. He then observed that the population experienced a crash, just like the unfenced populations do. Krebs believed this was due to social behaviour among the voles and could be applied to other animals like them. The voles had no place to migrate therefore the final crash seemed to stem from an increase of competition, aggressive behaviour, and decreased resources. Krebs also worked in British Columbia and Northern Canada for over 40 years to look at cyclic populations of mammals.1. Ecological Society of America. 2002. Eminent Ecologist Award. http://www.esa.org/history/Awards/bulletin/eminent2002.pdf during this time he was able to transform the field of ecology from a descriptive science to an experimental discipline. For 20 years he studied the 10-year population cycle of snowshoe hares and their predators in the Yukon. He found that the population size of the snowshoe hares is regulated by predators such as the lynx, coyote, great horned owls and goshawks. 90% of their deaths were found to be due to these predators and almost none because of starvation and disease. During his career, Krebs made the case for basic research. A summary of Krebs work and his influence on students and colleagues ( Judith H. Myers, Stan Boutin
Rudy Boonstra
and Tony Sinclair can be seen in a series of seminars entitle
"Krebs´ ecologists: on population regulation"

Select awards and recognition

Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada Fellowship of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Canada judges to have "made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life" ...

, 1979 * Killam Senior Fellowship, 1985 * President's Medal,

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

, 1986 * Honorary doctorate,

University of Lund Lund University () is a 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 founded in 1666 on the ...

, 1988 * Sir Frederick McMaster Senior Fellowship,

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

, Australia, 1992 * C. Hart Merriam Award,

American Society of Mammalogists The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) was founded in 1919. Its primary purpose is to encourage the study of mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence ...

, 1993 * Fry Medal, Canadian Society of Zoologists, 1996 * Northern Science Award,

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

, 2002 * Corresponding Member,

Australian Academy of Science The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London. The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Soci ...

, 2002 *

Eminent Ecologist Award The Eminent Ecologist Award is prize awarded annually to a senior ecologist in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the science of ecology. The prize is awarded by the Ecological Society of America. According to the statutes, the recipient ...

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 ...

, 2002 * Fellow of the

Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales The Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales (RZSNSW) was formed in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1879 as the New South Wales Zoological Society. A Royal Charter was granted in September, 1908, leading to a change to the current name ...

2013

References

External links

Ecological Rants: Charles Krebs' Blogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krebs, Charles Living people Canadian ecologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada 1936 births People from St. Louis Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Academic staff of the University of Canberra University of Minnesota alumni University of British Columbia alumni Fellows of the Ecological Society of America American zoologists Canadian zoologists