Jonas Axel Boeck (16 May 1833 – 6 May 1873) was a Norwegian marine biologist.

Personal life

Axel Boeck was born in 1833 in

Aker Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

(now part of Oslo) to Christian Peter Bianco Boeck (1798–1877) and Elisabeth Collett (1806–1883). He was the brother of the jurist

Thorvald Boeck Thorvald Olaf Boeck (August 15, 1835 – April 21, 1901) was a Norwegian jurist, civil servant, and book collector. He is known for assembling what was the largest private library of its time in Norway. Book collection Boeck acquired his first bo ...

. He died just prior to his 40th birthday in Christiania (now Oslo).

Work and legacy

He studied medicine, completing his degree in 1863. Although he was somewhat overshadowed by his successors Georg Ossian Sars and Johan Hjort, Boeck was a pioneer of fisheries science. He was the first Norwegian fisheries scientist, and the country's first

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

researcher. His major works were ' (1870), about northern amphipods, and ' (1871), on the

Atlantic herring Atlantic herring (''Clupea harengus'') is a herring in the family (biology), family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large ...

and its

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

. In the latter, Boeck attempted to investigate periodicity in herring by examining archival data, and combining scientific and historical approaches. The

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

genus ''

Boeckella ''Boeckella'' is a genus of copepods in the family Centropagidae. Species The genus ''Boeckella'' contains 49 species, of which five are listed as vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List – the Australian endemics ''B. bispinosa'', ''B. genicu ...

'' is named in honour of Axel Boeck, as were the species '' Metopa boeckii'', ''

Diastylis boecki ''Diastylis'' is a genus of crustaceans which belong to the family Diastylidae. It includes the following species: *''Diastylis abboti'' Gladfelter, 1975 *''Diastylis abbreviata'' G. O. Sars, 1871 *''Diastylis acuminata'' Jones, 1960 *'' Dias ...

'', '' Asterocheres boecki'', '' Pardaliscella boeckii'', '' Amphilochoides boeckii'', '' Sarsameira boecki'', '' Metridia boecki'', '' Parandania boecki'', '' Follicculina boecki'' and '' Siphonactinia boeckii''.

Award

*Crown Prince's Gold Medal (''Kronprinsens gullmedalje'') in 1860 for a dissertation on the species Gammarus locusta.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Boeck, Jonas Axel 1833 births 1873 deaths Scientists from Oslo University of Oslo alumni 19th-century Norwegian zoologists Norwegian marine biologists Norwegian ichthyologists Norwegian carcinologists Fisheries scientists