Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology

Description

What is it like to do field biology in a world that exalts experiments and laboratories? How have field biologists assimilated laboratory values and practices, and crafted an exact, quantitative science without losing their naturalist souls? In Landscapes and Labscapes, Robert E. Kohler explores the people, places, and practices of field biology in the United States from the 1890s to the 1950s. He takes readers into the fields and forests where field biologists learned to count and measure nature and to read the imperfect records of "nature's experiments." He shows how field researchers use nature's particularities to develop "practices of place" that achieve in nature what laboratory researchers can only do with simplified experiments. Using historical frontiers as models, Kohler shows how biologists created vigorous new border sciences of ecology and evolutionary biology. Contents List of Illustrations William F. Ganong 2.1 Charles O. Whitman 2.2 Charles C. Adams 2.3 Collecting expedition, Woods Hole 2.4 Carnegie Station for Experimental Evolution 2.5 University of Pennsylvania vivarium 2.6 Field station, Gull Lake 2.7 Carnegie Institution Desert Laboratory 3.1 Charles B. Davenport 3.2 Carl H. Eigenmann at Donaldson’s Cave 3.3 Student fieldwork, Syracuse Lake 3.4 Henry F. Nachtrieb and “Megalops” 3.5 “Driftwood Lake” (Sister Lake) 3.6 Henry C. Cowles and Homer L. Shantz 4.1 Counting a quadrat, Mount Garfield 4.2 A chart quadrat 4.3 Eggbeater psychrometer 4.4 Edward A. Birge and Chancey Juday, Lake Mendota 4.5 Atmometers 4.6 Phytometer garden, Pike’s Peak 4.7 Edith and Frederic E. Clements 4.8 Stations in the Santa Catalina Mountains 5.1 Francis B. Sumner, Woods Hole 5.2 Francis B. Sumner with “Perodipus” 5.3 Mexico, William Tower’s field sites 5.4 Arthur Banta, Cold Spring Harbor 5.5 Tahiti, topographic map 5.6 Victor E. Shelford, University of Chicago 5.7 Field stations, Sierra Nevada 5.8 Harvey Hall’s field garden 5.9 Taxonomy of a species group 5.10 Jens Clausen’s field gardens 6.1 Conway MacMillan 6.2 William F. Ganong 6.3 Henry C. Cowles and students 6.4 Henry A. Gleason 6.5 Edith and Frederic E. Clements, Pike’s Peak 6.6 Francis B. Sumner 6.7 Forrest Shreve 7.1 Glacier Bay, Alaska 7.2 Salton Sea 7.3 Lodgepole pine forest, Estes Park 7.4 Concentric glacial bog 7.5 Glacial physiography, Lake Michigan 7.6 Indiana dunes 7.7 Fossil beaches, Lake Michigan 7.8 Lakeshore stream series 7.9 San Francisco Mountains 7.10 Humboldt Bay research site 7.11 Santa Rosa Island 8.1 Biogeography of subspecies ring 8.2 Double invasion of an island 8.3 Edgar Anderson 8.4 Cajun farms, Mississippi Delta 8.5 Distribution of hybrids 8.6 Seasonal fauna, Cedar Creek Bog 8.7 Cedar Creek Bog, Minnesota 8.8 Transect, Cedar Creek Bog 8.9 Vegetation map, Great Smoky Mountains 9.1 Silver Springs, Florida 9.2 Silver Springs sampling sites 9.3 Sonoran desert expeditions Preface Chapter 1: Borders and History Field and Lab in Biology Lab and Field as Place Borders and Frontiers An Overview, with Caveats Chapter 2: A New Natural History The New Natural History New Naturalists and Educational Reform Labscapes: Marine Stations and Biological Farms Labscapes: Vivaria and Field Stations Conclusion Chapter 3: Border Crossings The Rise and Decline of Biometry Ecology: Physiology or Natural History? Up “Brush Creek” and Back Again Guardians of the Faith: Genetics and Physiology Conclusion Chapter 4: Taking Nature’s Measure Trust in Numbers: Quadrats Taking Nature’s Measure: Instruments Plant-Machine: Atmometers and Phytometers Instrumental Eye: The Camera Making the Place Right: Forrest Shreve Conclusion Chapter 5: Experiments in Nature Experimental Evolution Shifting Ground: Field and Lab Experiments in Nature: Ecology Experimental Taxonomy: Harvey M. Hall and Jens Clausen Conclusion Chapter 6: Troubled Lives Midlife Crises: Ecology Ends and Means: Experimental Evolution Identity Genetics, True and False Physiologists and the Field Conclusion Chapter 7: Nature’s Experiments Nature’s Experiments Places in Process Reading Places Physiographic Ecology Panoramas Evolution Conclusion Chapter 8: Border Practices Geographical Speciation: Ernst Mayr Hybrid Introgression: Edgar Anderson Ecosystem Ecology: Raymond Lindeman Gradients and Continua: Robert Whittaker Conclusion Chapter 9: Border Biology: A Transect The Border Zone: A Bird’s-Eye View Conclusion Abbreviations Bibliography Index