Charles Krebs

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Charles Krebs
Charles Krebs.jpg
Krebs in 2007
Born
Charles Joseph Krebs

(1936-09-17) 17 September 1936 (age 84)
St. Louis, Missouri
Alma mater
Known forEcology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance
Spouse(s)Alice
Children2
Scientific career
FieldsPopulation ecology
Institutions
ThesisThe lemming cycle at Baker Lake, N.W.T., during 1959-61 (1962)
Doctoral advisorDennis Chitty
Other academic advisorsIan McTaggart-Cowan
InfluencedJudith H. Myers Stan Boutin
Websitehttp://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[]

References[]

  1. ^ http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~krebs/
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=11&pg=3
  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
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b 1. Ecological Society of America. 2002. Eminent Ecologist Award. http://www.esa.org/history/Awards/bulletin/eminent2002.pdf
  5. ^ Doyle, Sabrina (27 July 2015). "Q&A: Dr. Charles Krebs on a lifetime of science". Canadian Geographic. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  6. ^ "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[]

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