History of Ecological Sciences, Part 51: Formalizing Marine Ecology, 1870s to 1920s

Abstract

Click here for all previous articles in the History of the Ecological Sciences series by F. N. Egerton This part is the fourth in a sequence of histories of ecological sciences that arose from the 1870s into the 1920s, the previous ones being on plant ecology, animal ecology, and limnology (Egerton 2013b, 2014a, Egerton b). However, since marine ecology is a part of oceanography as well as being an ecological science, its history is more complex than that of the other three, and consequently, this part is also much longer and more complex than the other three. None of the other three have international congresses on their history every few years, with resulting volumes of papers being published. Marine ecology arose from three developments during the 1870s: founding of marine biological stations in Europe and America, voyages of research, especially H.M.S. Challenger, and plankton research, initiated at the University of Kiel. "Mac" McIntosh (1985:49–57) provided a bibliographical guide to the history of marine ecology. Eric Mills' Biological Oceanography: An Early History, 1870–1960 (1989) is actually limited in scope to the history of plankton research. Marine ecology history is mostly embedded within the context of the history of oceanography, which has an extensive literature (including Herdman 1923, Idyll 1969, Schlee 1973, Ward 1974, Sears and Merriman 1980, Lenz and Deacon 1990, Vanney 1993, Deacon 1997a, Mills 2000, Benson and Rehbock 2002, Morcos and Zhu 2004, Groeben 2013). Of interest is John Murray, chapter 1. "A Brief Historical Review of Oceanographical Investigations" (Murray and Hjort 1912:1–21, with 12 portraits). A few small marine biology stations arose before 1870, but a major impetus for their development was the example set by Anton Dohrn founding his Stazione Zoologica in Naples in 1873. Voyages to explore marine life began in the 1840s, but were only occasional and of short duration until H.M.S. Challenger's 3.5-year voyage, 1872–1876. The existence of plankton had been known before Victor Hensen named it and connected it to the fate of northern European fisheries; that connection made it seem worthy of sustained intensive research. The impetus of these three developments plus a decline in fish populations led to the founding in 1902 of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), which transcended European national Atlantic marine research limitations. ICES inspired the founding of the Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Méditerranée. Commercial fisheries science also progressed beyond Europe, and the American story is also discussed. However, rather than discuss the first part of the careers of William Beebe and Henry Bigelow here, both are deferred to part 58. Alister Hardy's career also extended beyond the 1920s, but with a briefer discussion than planned for Beebe and Bigelow, his account provides an ending for this part 51. In 1910, two American zoologists, Charles Kofoid (1865–1947) and Chancey Juday (1871–1944), independently and apparently unaware of the other's project, published accounts of European aquatic biological stations, fresh and saltwater. Kofoid's is a book for which the U.S. Bureau of Education had provided a grant enabling him to survey Europe's marine stations, 1908–1909, which he did in preparation for planning such a station for the University of California (Goldschmidt 1951:127, Mullen 1973, Shor 1974, Burgess 1996:62, Day and Mills 2013:237–238). Juday's report is a 20-page article + 4 plates. Both are illustrated with photographs of station buildings. Since their accounts only extend to 1910, we also need to consult later guides. T. Wayland Vaughn edited and partly wrote International Aspects of Oceanography (1937), on oceanographic institutions. Homer Jack compressed a Ph.D. dissertation at Cornell (1940) into Biological Field Stations of the World (1945), with a few illustrations and references for almost all stations. Robert Hiatt compiled Directory of Hydrobiological Laboratories and Personnel in North America (1954) and World Directory of Hydrobiological and Fisheries Institutions (1963), both containing photographs of buildings, station grounds, and ships. C. M. Yonge (1956) published a brief world survey of marine stations. Patrick Scaps's Histoire de la Biologie marine (2005:73–88) has a chapter on early stations. Margaret Deacon (1993) has discussed foundation of marine stations in Britain during the later 1800s, from the standpoint of funding and other factors relating to their establishment and success. A few small stations opened before 1870, but most opened after 1870 (Yonge 1956, Benson 1988a, b, c, Dexter 1988, Maienschein 1988, Kohler 2002:42–44, Deacon 2003). Kevin Eckelbarger gave a recent very brief historical perspective (2007). Proceedings of international congresses on oceanographic history provide sketches of other stations (Sears and Merriam 1980, Lenz and Deacon 1990, Morcos and Zhu 2004). Johan van Bennekom (2013) discussed the history of European marine stations before 1900. Professor of Zoology Pierre-Joseph van Beneden (1809–1894), University of Louvain, established the first marine research station in 1843 at Ostend, Belgium, on his in-laws' oyster farm, which he named Laboratoire des Dunes (Florkin 1970, Houvenaghel 1980:668–669, Ellis 2005:22, Scaps 2005:79, Chalier 2013:107). It attracted biologists from Belgium, France, and Germany. It was overshadowed in 1859 when Victor Coste (1807–73), from Collège de France, founded the first coastal station in France at Concarneau (Hiatt 1963:73). In 1883, Beneden's son, Edouard (1846–1910) founded another station at Ostend, which may have been where the elder Beneden's student, G. Gilson (1859–1944), began his studies about 1900 (Houvenaghel 1980:669). Later, Gilson became head of the Musée Royal d'Histoire Naturelle in Brussels, and in 1927, that museum took over Gilson's laboratory at Ostende and named it Institut d'Etudes Maritimes (Vaughn 1937:104–105, Hiatt 1963:15). Surprisingly—since it is in far-eastern Europe—Ukraine (in the Russian Empire) developed one or two stations as early as 1871. Alexandru Bologa (2004:211) cited development of a station at Odessa in that year, initiated by three members of the Novorossiisk County Naturalists' Society (Alexander O. Kovalevskyi, Ilya Mechnikov, Ivan Sechenov), who attached it to Novorossiisk University; yet, Yuri Tokarev (2004:223) denied this claim, stating that the Sevastopol Biological Station (SBS) was the one established in 1871, attached to that university. The editors of both papers suggested that two stations may have been established in 1871. If so, however, the Sevastopol station overshadowed the Odessa one, which presumably faded away. It is also surprising that SBS's director in 1878–1888 was a woman, Sofia M. Pereiaslavtseva, who afterwards remained there as chief zoologist (Bologa 2004:211). The early goal of the station was simply to inventory the marine species of plants and animals. In 1890 and 1891, Nikolai Andrusov organized exploratory voyages to extend the inventory into deep seas. In 1892 the station came under supervision by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Sergei Zernov (1871–1945), who headed SBS in 1902–14, "created the Russian school of hydrobiology and established the chair in this domain at the Moscow Agricultural University" (Tokarev 2004:225). Zernov "extended the scope of the research from zoology to ecology and ethology" (Bologa 2004:211). Kofoid began his country-by-country accounts with a detailed account of Stazione Zoologica, Naples, Italy (1910:7–32 + 8 plates), founded by German zoologist F. Anton Dohrn (1840–1909). Such attention was justified both because of its own scientific achievements and its influence on the building of other stations. Dohrn had studied at Jena under Gegenbaur and Haeckel (Vaughn 1937, Ward 1974:137–141, Oppenheimer 1978, 1980, Groeben 1985, Heuss 1991:35–36). In 1867 he visited David Robertson on Great Cumbrae Island in Scotland's Firth of Clyde, where he realized the advantage of residing on the coast to study marine life (Allen 1976:209). In 1868 he traveled to Messinia, Sicily and studied early development of crustacea in aquaria (Heuss 1991:74–79). In 1871 he settled in Naples and obtained city land in a park on Naples Bay, where he built a zoological station (Dohrn 1872, Juday 1910:1275–77, Heuss 1991:114–120). He had to raise money to build and maintain it, but coming from a wealthy family, and making it an international enterprise—even Darwin contributed books and money (Groeben 1984:61, Heuss 1991:212)—he succeeded in building the foremost marine zoology station in the world (begun in 1872 and opened in 1873) which attracted researchers from Europe and America (Herdman 1923:135–144, Ghiselin 2008, Slack 2010:63–69). It contained research tables that were for rent at the equivalent of U.S.$500 per year. Various governments and institutions rented them (Ebert 1985:173–174), and an account of Russian scientists who studied there (Groeben and Fokin 2013) is undoubtedly a story which was similar for other countries. The station built a public aquarium that attracted tourists in Naples, who were charged admission (Heuss 1991:294–295). Dohrn succeeded in attracting a capable staff to assist researches, and as its popularity grew, he expanded its buildings and equipment (Hiatt 1963:104–105). Despite being named a zoological station, an active program in the study of micro- and macro-algae began four years after it opened (Tomas 1985); in 1888 Dohrn built a new building for a Department of Physiology (Ghiretti 1985). The station created three sets of publications to publish researches accomplished there: Zoologischer Jahresbericht, begun 1879, with annual summaries written by various specialists; Mitteilungen aus der Zoologischen Station zu Neapel, begun 1879, for less extensive researches on Mediterranean flora and fauna; and Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel, with colored lithographs, 31 issues being published by 1908 (Kofoid 1910:20). The Mitteilungen's name was changed in 1916 to Publicazioni della Stazione Zoologica di Napoli (Reidl 1980:4). The station also collected and exported specimens to marine biologists elsewhere, and it still maintains an excellent archive (Groeben 2002). Dohrn's report of activities during 1879–1880 included an account of his trip to Kiel to see and try out a scaphander for underwater exploration, and upon returning to Naples, he obtained one from the Italian Navy, which he and several assistants used to explore underwater during two years. However, as the Bay of Naples became polluted, his station confined its research to the laboratories (Reidl 1980:5–7). (a) Felix Anton Dohrn. Web. (b) Stazione Zoologica, Naples, about 1875. Groeben 1984:61. For other stations Kofoid provided less information. The country with the greatest number of stations which he discussed was France (Kofoid 1910:48–143; also, Josquin Debaz's Ph.D. dissertation, 2005), and the largest of 19 French stations which he described was founded by zoology professor Félix-Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers (1821–1901), of the Sorbonne, in 1872, a marine laboratory at a fishing village, Roscoff, in western Brittany (Kofoid 1910:95–104 + 3 plates, Juday 1910:1268–70, Appel 1973, Théodoridès 1990, Matagne 1999:203–204), which later received a research vessel, Le Dentale, from l'Association française pour l'Avancement des Sciences. By 1880, it accommodated 17 biologists, and in 1881, the station became affiliated with laboratories of the Faculté des Sciences in Paris, and later was named Laboratoire Lacaze-Duthiers (Juday 1910:1268–1269, Jack 1945:46, Hiatt 1963:74–75). Upon Lacaze-Duthiers' death, he was succeeded by his associate at the station since 1878, Professor Yves Delagne (1854–1920), an experimental physiologist (Tétry 1971). The station grew under able leadership and could accommodate over 100 students and investigators by 1908. Lacaze-Duthiers was a cofounder in 1872 of Archives de Zoologie experimental et générale, which published many of the monographs produced at Roscoff. In 1881 Lacaze-Duthiers also established Laboratoire Arago Banyuls-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast (Hiatt 1963:72–73). Kofoid devoted 10 pages to Monaco's Institut Oceanographique, on the Mediterranean (Juday 1910:1271–1272, Kofoid 1910:37–47, Herdman 1923:119–133, Jack 1945:53–54, 135, Hiatt 1963:135, Deacon 1971:382, 391, 392, Schlee 1973:132–137, Mills 2009:162–191). Prince Albert I (Honoré Charles Grimaldi, 1848–1922) served for a time in the Spanish navy, and in 1873 he bought a schooner, mastered navigation, and in 1885 began oceanographic research that lasted for the rest of his life (Petit 1970, Mills 1983:48–58, 1989:116–117). He enlisted the services of Scottish chemist John Buchanan (1844–1925), who had served on the Challenger Expedition, who became Albert's close collaborator until World War I (Kutzbach 1970, Carpine-Lancre and McConnell 2013). Albert conducted research from several vessels, beginning with Princesse-Alice (Doumenge 1997), and in 1887 he sailed to the Azores, where he met Afonso Chaves (1857–1926), who had a military career, but had become interested in sciences relating to the Azores; Albert and Chaves became fast friends for life (Martins 1997). In 1906 Albert attempted, unsuccessfully, to organize an international oceanographic congress to meet in Monaco (Carpine-Lancre 1980). In 1910 he opened the Musée Oceanographique de Monaco which displayed biological specimens (Mills and Carpine-Lancre 1992), and in 1911 he opened the Institut Océanographique in Paris for teaching and research. Its director, Professor Paul Portier (1866–1962), University of Paris, supervised over 100 Ph.D. dissertations (Monnier 1975:101, photo; Day and Mills 2013:250). Albert also founded two publications, an institute Bulletin and Annales. Although inspired by Dohrn's Stazione Zoologica, Albert was also responding to the slow development of oceanography and marine biology in France (Mills 1983:48–58, 2009: chapter 6). In 1886, the Spanish Navy launched Spain's first oceanographic expedition, using "the outdated frigate Blanca" (Morcos et al. 2013:269). A doctoral student at the University of Madrid, Odón de Buen (1863–1945), became the expedition naturalist, and that experience changed the direction of his interests. He received his Ph.D. in 1887, and in 1889 he became Professor of Zoology at the University of Barcelona until 1911, when he returned to the University of Madrid as Professor of Natural History. While at Barcelona, he frequently visited Professor Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers' marine Laboratoire Arago at Banyuls-sur-Mer, France. The influence of Lacaze-Duthiers and his marine laboratory were important guidance for Buen when establishing the Laboratorio Biológico-Marino (1906) at Porto Pi, Majorca. In 1908, he began corresponding with Jules Richard, Albert's collaborator, who became head of Albert's Institut Océanographique (1911), and subsequently Buen also corresponded with Albert (Morcos et al. 2013:270–271). Albert's example also inspired King Carlos I de Bragança of Portugal (r. 1889–1908) to study oceanography (Saldanha 1980, 1997, Carpine-Lancre and Saldanha 1992, Amorim 2009:53–55). He had earlier stayed informed about oceanographic explorations in or near Portuguese waters (Deacon 1997b). In 1896, he used his own vessel, Amélia, to begin oceanographic research in Portugal's coastal waters, and he later graduated to three more ships, all named for his queen, which enhanced his investigations. His scientific colleague was Albert A. A. Girard, of French ancestry, who had grown up in Portugal and worked at the Lisbon zoology museum (Ramos 2006:180). Their biological collecting was accompanied by environmental measurements of ocean waters. Carlos was particularly interested in fisheries; a transition was underway from sailing to steam fishing vessels, with the latter having a greater harvesting potential. He studied the Portuguese tuna fishery by distributing questionnaires to owners of fixed nets in 1899 and published his findings. He also published in 1904 a monograph on sharks in Portuguese waters. His assassination prevented the publication of all of his findings, and he left no oceanographic tradition or institution. Portugal's most prominent zoologist of the time was not Girard, but José du Bocage (1823–1907), from the Atlantic island of Madeira, who had studied at the University of Coimbra, and became a professor at Lisbon Polytech, later renamed the Science Faculty, University of Lisbon and head of the Museum of Natural History (Saldanha 1990:169, Deacon 1997b:67–78). Bocage is most remembered zoologically for a controversy concerning a sponge Hyalonema lusitanica Bocage, which closely resembled a Japanese species. He also became a prominent statesman. (a) Albert I of Monaco (in white hat and shoes) and orca on his yacht. Web site. (b) Carlos I of Portugal. Web site (standing, in color). (a) José Vicente Barboza du Bocage (1823–1907). Saldanha 1990:169. (b) Augusto Pereira Nobre. Web. Another outstanding Portuguese zoologist at the time of Carlos I was Augusto Nobre into a wealthy in who was in at the in Paris, and at the Station de Biologie Marine de University of 1997). In 1890 he returned to one of the where he had studied in the and in he organized a Department of Zoology and a In he established a Marine Zoology Station at and he published accounts of Portugal's marine and a than Kiel is on Kiel Bay, by a the North Sea and Kiel had and in 1870, the German founded there a der (Kofoid Mills This established stations that were used by on the of this are discussed under were also other stations being established in (Kofoid The station at was particularly important for and fisheries research Early were and The station began in important research was conducted by the at the Museum at the University of and Stations were within however, the opened a collecting station at on the Sea in 1870, because of it to in 1891, its scope to research Albert I and Carlos of a German used his own for biological in the Mediterranean from his on the of from Stazione Zoologica, published findings. The of the plankton was in the during the and into a and that took at world leadership in plankton studies until In two other fisheries laboratories at and at and later another at (Mills (a) Web site. (b) of the Marine Biological Web. In worked the a which could from to The at in as did the University laboratory at in the of Hjort set up a laboratory at on the in The Scottish came into being in and the Marine was built in in Prince Albert his Monaco laboratory in provides more The University of established the station at with Hjort as director in the had not been renamed Marine biology stations in western (a) (b) Bennekom had at biological stations founded before 1911, of which were Russian was the of zoologist who had at the and Fokin 2013). a student and worked at various European biological stations, and in he became Professor of Zoology at University University of In 1911 he established a marine station in the of on the It lasted there for years having a It was the of both teaching and research. University was by German in and the Russian was also of station of scientific papers and research were in German during World War a marine station until when Professor who had a in biology from the and who at Alexandru founded a Marine Station on the Sea coast at and Bologa et al. 2013). from at but two years later Homer A. Jack visited the station and that is an zoological station and it its of being a station in the in Bologa et al. Jack In the where controversy over of decline in F. to the Commission of and with him as no beyond his at the in 1871 Egerton The U.S. Commission of and Fisheries was first research at where he took his in to the of and had been a from

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