Royal Norton Chapman (17 September 1889 – 2 December 1939) was an American entomologist who examined insect ecology. He was one of the pioneers of quantitative ecology, with his extensive experimental studies on the population dynamics of '' Tribolium'' beetles. His textbook ''Insect Ecology'' (1931) was a landmark in ecological entomology.

Life and work

Chapman was born in

Morristown, Minnesota Morristown is a city in Rice County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 949 at the 2020 census. History Morristown was platted in 1855, and named for Walter Morris, a pioneer settler. Geography According to the United States Census ...

of Anglo-Dutch ancestry. He joined Pillsbury Academy after schooling in Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. He received a BA in 1914 and an MA in 1915 from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, working on the life history of '' Agrilus bilineatus'' under the supervision of A.G. Ruggles, after which he joined

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

for his doctorate under

John Henry Comstock John Henry Comstock (February 24, 1849 – March 20, 1931) was an eminent researcher in entomology and arachnology and a leading educator. His work provided the basis for classification of butterflies, moths, and scale insects. Career Comstock w ...

. He then joined the University of Minnesota to work on quantitative ecology of insects. In 1925 he became a head of the division of entomology and economic zoology at the university. He worked on applied entomology research, working on pests in pineapple in Hawaii and became a dean of the school of tropical agriculture at the University of Hawaii from 1931 till his return to Minnesota in 1939. His most influential work was on the dynamics of ''Tribolium'' ''confusum'' beetles which he studied in experimental set ups. This would later make the beetles model organisms in population ecology and contributed to progress in mathematical models in population ecology. He corresponded with

Vito Volterra Vito Volterra (, ; 3 May 1860 – 11 October 1940) was an Italian mathematician and physicist, known for his contributions to Mathematical and theoretical biology, mathematical biology and Integral equation, integral equations, being one of the ...

on his population studies. Among his ideas, was the formula inspired by

Ohm's Law Ohm's law states that the electric current through a Electrical conductor, conductor between two Node (circuits), points is directly Proportionality (mathematics), proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of ...

that there was a biotic potential and a resistance from the environment to the growth of populations of organisms - C = B_p/R, where C was the concentration of insects, B_p the "biotic potential" of the species and R the environmental resistance to population growth.

References

External links

The Causes of Fluctuations of Populations of Insects (1932)

Insect Ecology
(1931)
Correspondence archives at University of Minnesota
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Royal Norton 1889 births 1939 deaths University of Minnesota alumni American entomologists American ecologists University of Minnesota faculty Cornell University alumni 20th-century American zoologists