Book description
Sir Arthur Tansley was the leading figure in ecology for the first half
of the 20th century, founding the field, and forming its first
professional societies. He was the first President of the British
Ecological Society and the first chair of the Field Studies Council. His
work as a botanist is considered seminal and he is recognized as one of
the giants of ecology throughout the world.
Ecology underpins the principles and practices of modern conservation
and the maintenance of biodiversity. It explains the causes of, and
offers solutions to, problems of climate change. Yet ecology is a
young science, barely 100 years old. Its origins lie in
phytogeography, the naming and mapping of plants.
Shaping Ecology is a book about a multi-faceted man whose
friends included Bertrand Russell, Marie Stopes, Julian Huxley, GM
Trevelyan, and Solly Zuckerman. Historical context is provided by
Tansley's family for his parents moved in the Fabian-socialist world
of John Ruskin and Octavia Hill, both instrumental in the foundation
of the National Trust. While Britain was relatively slow to protect
its green spaces and wildlife, it did establish in 1913 the first
professional Ecological Society in the world. Tansley was its
President. Organising the British Vegetation Committee and initiating
a series of International Phytogeographic Excursions, he changed
phytogeography into ecology.
Peter Ayres was taught by, or worked with, several
of Tansley's closest friends. He was for seven years Executive Editor
of the New Phytologist, the journal founded by Tansley. After a
career teaching plant physiology and pathology at Lancaster
University, his interest in the history of plant sciences has led him
to write Harry Marshall Ward and the Fungal Thread of Death and
The Aliveness of Plants: The Darwins at the Dawn of Plant
Science.
