Charles Krebs
Charles Krebs | |
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![]() Krebs in 2007 | |
Born | Charles Joseph Krebs 17 September 1936 St. Louis, Missouri |
Alma mater | |
Known for | Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance |
Spouse(s) | Alice |
Children | 2 |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Population ecology |
Institutions | |
Thesis | The lemming cycle at Baker Lake, N.W.T., during 1959-61 (1962) |
Doctoral advisor | Dennis Chitty |
Other academic advisors | Ian McTaggart-Cowan |
Influenced | Judith H. Myers Stan Boutin |
Website | http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~krebs/ |
Charles Joseph Krebs FRSC FAA FRZS (born 17 September 1936) is a professor emeritus of population ecology in the University of British Columbia Department of Zoology.[1] He is also Thinker-in-residence at the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra, Australia. He is renowned for his work on the , as well as his widely used ecology textbook Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance.[2]
Research[]
Krebs was interested mostly in smaller mammal ecology and in 1965 conducted an experiment on voles.[3] He fenced in an area of grassland in an Indiana pasture about the size of a soccer field and observed what happened to the population of voles living inside the fenced area.[3] This was when he founded the widely known "Fence Effect".[3] Within a year of living in the fenced area the voles had increased by about five times, which is much more than they would in an unfenced area.[3] He then observed that the population experienced a crash, just like the unfenced populations do.[3] Krebs believed this was due to social behaviour among the voles and could be applied to other animals like them.[3] The voles had no place to migrate therefore the final crash seemed to stem from an increase of competition, aggressive behaviour, and decreased resources.[3]
Krebs also worked in British Columbia and Northern Canada for over 40 years to look at cyclic populations of mammals.[4] during this time he was able to transform the field of ecology from a descriptive science to an experimental discipline.[4] For 20 years he studied the 10-year population cycle of snowshoe hares and their predators in the Yukon.[3] He found that the population size of the snowshoe hares is regulated by predators such as the lynx, coyote, great horned owls and goshawks.[3] 90% of their deaths were found to be due to these predators and almost none because of starvation and disease.[3]
During his career, Krebs made the case for basic research.
If someone asks me if my work has economic benefit I say absolutely none. And then they ask 'well why are you doing it' and I say that we need to understand the world we live in. It enriches our lives.
— Charles Krebs, Q&A: Dr. Charles Krebs on a lifetime of science, Canadian Geographic[5]
Select awards and recognition[]
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, 1979[2]
- Killam Senior Fellowship, 1985
- President's Medal, University of Helsinki, 1986
- Honorary doctorate, University of Lund, 1988
- Sir Frederick McMaster Senior Fellowship, CSIRO, Australia, 1992
- C. Hart Merriam Award, American Society of Mammalogists, 1994
- Fry Medal, , 1996
- , Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 2002
- Corresponding Member, Australian Academy of Science, 2002
- Eminent Ecologist Award, Ecological Society of America, 2002
- Fellow of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales 2013[6]
References[]
- ^ http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~krebs/
- ^ Jump up to: a b http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=11&pg=3
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j GCS Research Society. 2015. Science.ca. http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=11
- ^ Jump up to: a b 1. Ecological Society of America. 2002. Eminent Ecologist Award. http://www.esa.org/history/Awards/bulletin/eminent2002.pdf
- ^ Doyle, Sabrina (27 July 2015). "Q&A: Dr. Charles Krebs on a lifetime of science". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ "Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales". Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales. Archived from the original on 15 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
External links[]
- Living people
- Canadian ecologists
- Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada
- 1936 births
- People from St. Louis
- Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
- University of British Columbia faculty
- University of Canberra faculty
- University of Minnesota alumni
- University of British Columbia alumni
- Fellows of the Ecological Society of America
- American zoologists
- Canadian zoologists