Anton Kerner Ritter von Marilaun, or Anton Joseph Kerner, (12 November 1831 – 21 June 1898) was an Austrian botanist, physician, and professor at the University of Innsbruck and later at the University of Vienna. The standard author abbreviation A.Kern. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. Von Marilaun emphasized the concept of plant sociology or the species that plants were typically found associated with in his geographical studies of species. Inspired by the work of Alexander von Humboldt and others he examined climatological and historical factors in the distributions of plant species.
Career
Kerner was born in Mautern, Lower Austria, and studied medicine in Vienna, graduating in 1854 with a medical degree. He also studied the flora of Wachau. He then became a teacher at Often and continued his studies in natural history. In 1858 Kerner was appointed professor of botany at the Polytechnic Institute at Buda, and then in 1860 was appointed professor of natural history at the University of Innsbruck. During this period he carried out phytosociologic studies in Central Europe. He resigned the latter position in 1878 to become professor of systematic botany at the University of Vienna, and also curator of the botanical garden there. As part of his expansive exsiccata series Flora exsiccata Austro-Hungarica, which he started in 1881, von Marilaun recruited botanists as collectors including Karl Eggerth and later as editor including Richard Wettstein.
In 1863 he wrote in his Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer that much more was known about the plants of south America than of Austro-Hungary thanks to a traveller like Alexander von Humboldt. He set about fixing this imbalance by examining in detail the physical structure of vegetation in the region. He examined plants and their associations. Kerner was particularly active in the fields of phytogeography and phytosociology. Kerner also examined plant-insect interactions and noted the role of mechanical defences, chemicals, stinging hairs and so on and termed the relationship as "armed freedom." He was knighted and given the title of Ritter von Marilaun in 1877. Marilaun was the summer family home in Trins in the Gschnitztal valley. Here he established an alpine garden. He compared the growth of plants in this garden and at Vienna and Innsbruck conducing an altitudinal adaptation experiment for 6 years involving about 300 annuals and perennials. He died of a stroke in 1898 in Vienna at the age of 67.
He said "… and years pass by until a second generation can develop stronger and richer on the prepared soil; but restless works the plant kingdom and constructs its green building further; on the corpses of perished roots, new, younger plant forms germinate, and so it goes on in tireless change until, finally, the shady treetops of a high forest murmur above a humus rich soil."
Kerner's son Fritz became a pioneer paleoclimatologist and geologist.
Publications
- Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer (The Background of Plant Ecology, translated by Henry S. Conard, 1951), Innsbruck, 1863. This book established his reputation and reports on his botanical explorations in Hungary.
- Die Kultur der Alpenflanzen, 1864. On the culture of alpine plants.
- Die botanischen Gärten, 1874. A sketch of a model botanical garden.
- Vegetationsverhältnisse des mittlern und östlichen Ungarn und Siebenbürgen, Innsbruck, 1875.
- von Marilaun, Anton Kerner (1895–96). The natural history of plants, their forms, growth, reproduction, and distribution', trans. FW Oliver et al. from Pflanzenleben, 1890-1891. New York: Holt. p. 4: 603. Retrieved 5 February 2014. See also HTML version
One of his most important works. In 1867, he finished the publication of the results of his studies with respect to the limits of vegetation of more than a thousand species of plants.
See also
Notes
- International Plant Names Index. A.Kern.
- Kraml, P. Amand (16 September 2021). "Objekt des Monats aus dem Museum der Sternwarte Kremsmünster November 2007". Sternwarte Kremsmünster, Specula Cremifanensis. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- Svojtka, Matthias (2009). "Sammler als Wegbereiter naturwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis – Fallstudien Leopold Johann Nepomuk von Sacher-Masoch (1797-1874) und Karl Eggerth (1861-1888)". Berichte der Geologischen Bundesanstalt. 45: 40–43. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- "Flora exsiccata Austro-Hungarica, a museo botanico universitatis vindobonensis edita: IndExs ExsiccataID=240009546". IndExs - Index of Exsiccatae. Botanische Staatssammlung München. Retrieved 1 June 2024.
- Nicolson, Malcolm (1996). "Humboldtian Plant Geography after Humboldt: The Link to Ecology". The British Journal for the History of Science. 29 (3): 289–310. doi:10.1017/S0007087400034476. ISSN 0007-0874. JSTOR 4027735.
- Egerton, Frank N. (2013). "History of Ecological Sciences, Part 48: Formalizing Plant Ecology, about 1870 to mid-1920s". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 94 (4): 341–378. doi:10.1890/0012-9623-94.4.341. ISSN 0012-9623.
- Fekete, Gábor; Tóthmérész, Béla (1993). "Vegetation Science in Hungary". Journal of Vegetation Science. 4 (2): 279–282. doi:10.2307/3236116. ISSN 1100-9233. JSTOR 3236116.
- Hartmann, Thomas (2008). "The lost origin of chemical ecology in the late 19th century". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105 (12): 4541–4546. doi:10.1073/pnas.0709231105. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2290813. PMID 18218780.
- Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer 1863
References
- Knoll, Fritz (1950): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun, ein Erforscher des Pflanzenlebens." in: "Oesterreichische Naturforscher und Techniker" ed. Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, 216 p.
- Petz-Grabenbauer, Maria, Kiehn, Michael (2004): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun", Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, ISBN 3-7001-3302-2.
- Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Kerner, Anton" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
External links
- Works by or about Anton Kerner von Marilaun at the Internet Archive
- Petz-Grabenbauer, Maria, Kiehn, Michael (2004): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun" - A new book about Anton Kerner von Marilaun published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (written in German)
- Chrono-biographical Sketch: Anton Kerner von Marilaun
- Obituary of Anton Kerner von Marilaun written by Otto Stapf, Nature 58, 251 - 252 (1898)
- Full text of The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution: from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 1) (1895-96)
- Full text of The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution: from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 2) (1895-96)
- Digitalized books written by Anton Kerner von Marilaun, mostly English translations
- PNAS-Artikel written by Thomas Hartmann about the lost origins of chemical ecology in the 19th century (containing a paragraph about Anton Kerner von Marilaun, p. 4542)