Henry Allan Gleason (1882–1975) was an American
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 ...
,
botanist
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 ...
, and
taxonomist
In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...
. He was known for his endorsement of the individualistic or open community concept of
ecological succession
Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an Community (ecology), ecological community over time.
The two main categories of ecological succession are primary succession and secondary succession. Primary successi ...
, and his opposition to
Frederic Clements
Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of both plant ecology and vegetation succession.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University o ...
's concept of the
climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
state of an
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
. His ideas were largely dismissed during his working life, leading him to move into plant taxonomy, but found favour late in the twentieth century.
Life and work
Gleason was born in
Dalton City, Illinois, and after undergraduate and master's work at the
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
earned a PhD from
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in Biology in 1906. He held faculty positions at the University of Illinois, the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
and the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, before returning to the East Coast, to the
New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
in
the Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, where he remained for the rest of his career, until 1950.
In Gleason's early
ecological
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 ...
research on the
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...
of
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
, around 1909–1912, he worked largely within the theoretical structure endorsed by
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 ...
Frederic Clements
Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of both plant ecology and vegetation succession.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University o ...
, whose work on
succession
Succession is the act or process of following in order or sequence.
Governance and politics
*Order of succession, in politics, the ascension to power by one ruler, official, or monarch after the death, resignation, or removal from office of ...
was the most influential during the first decades of the twentieth century. Building on
Henry C. Cowles's landmark research at the
Indiana Dunes and some of the ideas of his mentor
Charles Bessey at the
University of Nebraska
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
, Clements had developed a theory of plant succession in which vegetation could be explained by reference to an ideal sequence of development called a
sere. Clements sometimes compared the development of seres to the growth of individual
organism
An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
s, and suggested that under the right circumstances, seres would culminate in the best
adapted form of vegetation, which he called the
climax
Climax may refer to:
Language arts
* Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work
* Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance
Biology
* Climax community, a biological community th ...
state. In his early research, Gleason interpreted the vegetation of Illinois using Clementsian concepts like
associations, climax states,
pioneer species, and dominant species.
However, in 1918, Gleason began to express significant doubts on the usefulness of some of Clements's widely employed vocabulary, especially the use of the organism
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
to describe the growth of vegetation, and the treatment of the units of vegetation as including climaxes. (What units should be used in the analysis of vegetation was a widely disputed issue in early twentieth-century ecology.) In 1926, Gleason expressed even stronger objections to Clements's theory. First, he argued that Clements's identification of particular
kinds of vegetation assumed too much
homogeneity
Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts relating to the Uniformity (chemistry), uniformity of a Chemical substance, substance, process or image. A homogeneous feature is uniform in composition or character (i.e., color, shape, size, weight, ...
, since areas of vegetation are actually similar to one another only to degrees. Second, he argued that Clements's associating particular vegetation types with particular areas underestimated the real diversity of vegetation. These objections together cast doubt, for Gleason, on the "integrity of the
association concept" itself—on identifying any grouping of species as amounting to a nameable association, like "oak-maple association," as botanists and ecologists (including Gleason himself) normally had.
As an alternative to describing vegetation in terms of
associations, Gleason offered "the Individualistic concept of ecology," in which "the phenomena of vegetation depend completely upon the phenomena of the individual" species (1917), and plant associations are less structured than he thought Clements's theory maintained. At times, Gleason suggested that the distribution of plants approaches mathematical
randomness
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. ...
.
Clements never responded in print to Gleason's objections and alternative models, and they were largely ignored until the 1950s, when research by a number of ecologists (particularly
Robert Whittaker and
John T. Curtis) supported Gleasonian models. Subsequently, 'species-individualistic' models have become prevalent in community ecology.
Frustration due to dismissal of his ecological ideas without serious consideration may have contributed to Gleason's general abandonment of ecology. From the 1930s onward, he shifted the focus of his work to plant taxonomy, where he became an influential figure, working for many years at the New York Botanical Garden, and authoring with
Arthur Cronquist
Arthur John Cronquist (March 19, 1919 – March 22, 1992) was an American biologist, botanist and a specialist on Compositae. He is considered one of the most influential botanists of the 20th century, largely due to his formulation of the Cr ...
one of the authoritative floras of northeastern North America.
Gleason married Eleanor Theodolinda Mattei, the daughter of the Swiss-American winemaker
Andrew Mattei; they met on a steamship, where Gleason was on a botanical expedition, while Mattei was taking a grand tour of the world following her graduation from
Mills College
Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...
.
[.] Their elder son,
Henry Allan Gleason Jr (1917–2007), was a
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
and Professor Emeritus at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
. Their second son,
Andrew Gleason
Andrew Mattei Gleason (19212008) was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to widely varied areas of mathematics, including the solution of Hilbert's fifth problem, and was a leader in reform and innovation in teaching at ...
, (1921–2008), was a mathematician and Professor Emeritus at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
Awards and honors
* Named Honorary Fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation in 1963.
* The 110 acre Henry Allan Gleason Nature Preserve Area in the
Sand Ridge State Forest was dedicated after him in October 1970.
Bibliography
Works by Gleason
* Gleason, Henry A. 1901. The flora of the prairies. B. S. Thesis.
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1907. A botanical survey of the Illinois River Valley sand region. ''Ill. State Lab. Nat. Hist., Bull.'' 7:149-194.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1907. On the biology of the sand areas of Illinois. II. A botanical survey of the Illinois River Valley sand region. ''Ill. Lab. Nat. Hist., Bull.'' 7:149-194.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1908. A virgin prairie in Illinois. ''Ill. Acad. Sci., Trans.'' 1:62.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1909. The vegetational history of a river dune. ''Ill. Acad. Sci., Trans.'' 2:19-26.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1909. Some Unsolved Problems of the Prairies. ''
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club'' 36(5): 265–271.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1910. The vegetation of the inland sand deposits of Illinois. ''Ill. Lab. Nat. Hist., Bull.'' 9:23-174.
* Gleason, Henry A. 1912. An Isolated Prairie Grove and Its Phytogeographical Significance. ''
Botanical Gazette
The ''International Journal of Plant Sciences'' covers botanical research including genetics and genomics, developmental and cell biology, biochemistry and physiology, morphology and structure, systematics, plant-microbe interactions, paleobotany, ...
'' 53(1): 38–49.
*Gleason, Henry A. and Frank C. Gates. 1912. A Comparison of the Rates of Evaporation in Certain Associations in Central Illinois. ''Botanical Gazette'' 53(6): 478–491.
*
*Gleason, Henry A. 1922. On the Relation between Species and Area. ''
Ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
'' 3(2): 158–162.
*Gleason, Henry A. 1922. The Vegetational History of the Middle West. ''
'' 12: 39–85.
*Gleason, Henry A. 1925. Species and Area. ''Ecology'' 6(1): 66–74.
*
*Gleason, Henry A. 1927. Further Views on the Succession-Concept. ''Ecology'' 8(3): 299–326.
*Gleason, Henry A. 1936. Is Sunusia an Association? ''Ecology'' 17(3): 444–451.
*Gleason, Henry A. 1939. The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association. ''American Midland Naturalist'' 21(1): 92–110.
*Gleason, Henry A. 1975. Delving into the History of American Ecology. ''
Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecology, ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching reso ...
'' 56(4): 7–10.
Works on Gleason
*Barbour, Michael G. 1996
"Ecological Fragmentation in the Fifties" in
William Cronon, editor. ''Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature''. New York:
W.W. Norton & Co., .
*McIntosh, Robert P. 1975. H. A. Gleason - "'Individualistic Ecologist' 1882-1975: His Contributions to Ecological Theory". ''Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club'' 102(5): 253–273.
*Mitman, Gregg. 1995. "Defining the Organism in the Welfare State: The Politics of Individuality in American Culture, 1890-1950". in Sabine Maasen, Everett Mendelsohn and Peter Weingart, editors. ''Biology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors''. Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 in ...
.
*Nicolson, Malcolm and Robert P. McIntosh. 2002. "H.A. Gleason and the Individualistic Hypothesis Revisited". ''
Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a professional organization of ecology, ecological scientists. Based in the United States and founded in 1915, ESA publications include peer-reviewed journals, newsletters, fact sheets, and teaching reso ...
'' 83: 133–142.
*
Worster, Donald. 1994. ''Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas'', 2nd ed. Cambridge and New York:
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
.
*Marshall, Alan, The Unity of Nature: Wholeness and Disintegration in Science and Ecology, Imperial College Press: London, 2002.
*Kingsland, Sharon E. ''The evolution of American ecology, 1890-2000''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
References
External links
Gleasonat the
New York Botanical Garden
The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...
History of Ecology and the American Environmentat the
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleason, Henry
American ecologists
Ecological succession
1882 births
1975 deaths
American taxonomists
New York Botanical Garden
Torrey Botanical Society members
University of Michigan faculty
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
20th-century American botanists