Victor Ernest ShelfordDied 27 Dec 1968 at age 91 (born 22 Sep 1877).American zoologist and the most prominent animal ecologist of his generation who was primarily responsible for introducing animals into studies of climax communities and the successions leading to them. Succession in the Indiana Dunes was one of his early significant studies. He was influential in creating ecology as a distinct scientific discipline, with books such as his Animal Communities in Temperate America (1913). Shelford developed the biome concept in Bio-ecology (1939, with Frederic E. Clements) and contributed to the areas of physiological and population ecology. He was involved in the preservation of natural communities and founded the Ecologist's Union, which later became the Nature Conservancy.« |
