Carl Hansen Ostenfeld
Encyclopedia
Carl Emil Hansen Ostenfeld (born Carl Emil Ostenfeld-Hansen) (August 3, 1873 - January 16, 1931) was a Danish systematic
botanist. He graduated from the University of Copenhagen
under professor Eugenius Warming
. He was a keeper at the Botanical Museum 1900-1918, when he became professor of botany
at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College
. In 1923, by the early retirement of Raunkiær's
, Ostenfeld became professor of botany at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Copenhagen Botanical Garden, both positions held until his dead in 1931. He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
and served on the board of directors of the Carlsberg Foundation
.
Ostenfeld is known as an explorer of the Danish
flora
, including marine
plankton
, as well as the flora of Western Australia
.
Ostenfeld participated in the International Phytogeographic Excursion
to the British Isles
in 1911. The party studied the flora of parts of Ireland
, including Killarney
, Connemara
and The Burren
.
About a dozen plant species are is named after him.
Also some localities in Greenland
bear names to his commemoration:
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...
botanist. He graduated from the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
under professor Eugenius Warming
Eugenius Warming
Johannes Eugenius Bülow Warming , known as Eugen Warming, was a Danish botanist and a main founding figure of the scientific discipline of ecology...
. He was a keeper at the Botanical Museum 1900-1918, when he became professor of botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural College
University of Copenhagen Faculty of Life Sciences
The faculty previously known as the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University is located in Frederiksberg, Denmark and was established in 1856. As of 1 January 2007, the University merged with the University of Copenhagen...
. In 1923, by the early retirement of Raunkiær's
Christen C. Raunkiær
Christen Christensen Raunkiær was a Danish botanist, who was a pioneer of plant ecology. He is mainly remembered for his scheme of plant strategies to survive an unfavourable season and his demonstration that the relative abundance of strategies in floras largely corresponded to the Earth's...
, Ostenfeld became professor of botany at the University of Copenhagen and director of the Copenhagen Botanical Garden, both positions held until his dead in 1931. He was a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is a Danish non-governmental science Academy, founded 13 November 1742 by permission of the King Christian VI, as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum...
and served on the board of directors of the Carlsberg Foundation
Carlsberg Foundation
Carlsberg Foundation was founded by J. C. Jacobsen in 1876 and owns 30,3% of the shares in Carlsberg Group and has 74,2% of the voting power.The purpose of the foundation is to run and fund Carlsberg Laboratory, the museum at Frederiksborg Palace, to fund scientific research, run the Ny Carlsberg...
.
Ostenfeld is known as an explorer of the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
flora
Flora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
, including marine
Marine (ocean)
Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology...
plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
, as well as the flora of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
.
Ostenfeld participated in the International Phytogeographic Excursion
International Phytogeographic Excursion
The International Phytogeographic Excursions was a series of international meetings in plant geography that significantly contributed to exchange of scientific ideas across national and linguistic barriers and also to the rise of Anglo-American plant ecology. The initiative was taken by the British...
to the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
in 1911. The party studied the flora of parts of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, including Killarney
Killarney
Killarney is a town in County Kerry, southwestern Ireland. The town is located north of the MacGillicuddy Reeks, on the northeastern shore of the Lough Lein/Leane which are part of Killarney National Park. The town and its surrounding region are home to St...
, Connemara
Connemara
Connemara is a district in the west of Ireland consisting of a broad peninsula between Killary Harbour and Kilkieran Bay in the west of County Galway.-Overview:...
and The Burren
The Burren
The Burren is a karst-landscape region or alvar in northwest County Clare, in Ireland. It is one of the largest karst landscapes in Europe. The region measures approximately 250 square kilometres and is enclosed roughly within the circle made by the villages Ballyvaughan, Kinvara, Tubber, Corofin,...
.
About a dozen plant species are is named after him.
Also some localities in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
bear names to his commemoration:
- C.H. Ostenfeld Land in Northeast Greenland 75°15′N 21°32′W
- C.H. Ostenfeld Nunatak in Wordie's Glacier, Northeast Greenland 74°17′N 22°56′W
Selected scientific works
- Ostenfeld, C.H. & Johannes SchmidtJohannes Schmidt (biologist)Johannes Schmidt was a Danish biologist credited with discovering in 1920 that eels migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn...
(1901) Plankton fra det Røde HavRed SeaThe Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
og Adenbugten. Videnskabelige meddelelser fra Dansk Naturhistorisk Forening 1901: 141-182.
- Gelert, O. & Ostenfeld, C.H. (1902) Flora Arctica - containing description of the flowering plants and ferns, found in the Arctic regions, with their distribution in these countries, illustrated by numerous figures in the text.
- Part 1. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledones. CopenhagenCopenhagenCopenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, 1902. Full text
- Part 1. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledones. Copenhagen
- Ostenfeld, C.H. (1908) On the immigration of Biddulphia sinensis Grev. and its occurrence in the North Sea during 1903-1907 and on its use for the study of the direction and rate of flow of the currents. Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Danmarks Fiskeri- og Havundersøgelser: Serie Plankton 1 (6): 1-44.
- Ostenfeld, C.H. & C.G. Johannes PetersenC.G. Johannes PetersenCarl Georg Johannes Petersen was a Danish marine biologist, especially fisheries biologist. He was the first to describe communities of benthic marine invertebrates and is often considered a founder of modern fisheries research....
(1908) On the Ecology and Distribution of the Grass-Wrack (Zostera marinaZosteraZostera is a small genus of widely distributed seagrass, commonly called marine eelgrass or simply eelgrass . The genus Zostera contains sixteen species.-Ecology:Zostera is found on sandy substrates or in estuaries submerged or partially floating...
) in Danish Waters. Copenhagen, Centraltrykkeriet, 62 p. Series: The Danish Biological Station vol. 16.
- Ostenfeld, C.H. & Ove Paulsen (1910–1911) Marine plankton from the East-Greenland Sea (W. of 6° W. Long, and N. of 73° 30’ N. Lat.): collected by the "Danmark-Expedition" 1906-1908. Meddelelser om GrønlandMeddelelser om GrønlandMeddelelser om Grønland was a Danish scientific periodical issued by the Commission for Scientific Investigations in Greenland. Founded by Frederik Johnstrup, it was published from 1879 to 1979...
bd. 43 (11).- I : List of diatoms and flagellates / by C.H. Ostenfeld. 1910
- II : Protozoa / by C.H. Ostenfeld. 1910
- III : Peridiniales / by Ove Paulsen. 1910
- IV : General remarks on the microplankton / by C.H. Ostenfeld and Ove Paulsen. 1911
- Ostenfeld, C. E. H. 1912. Some remarks on the International Phytogeographic Excursion in the British Isles. New Phytologist, 11: 114-127.
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1912) Experiments on the Origin of Species in the Genus Hieracium (Apogamy and Hybridism). New Phytologist 11 (9): 347-354.
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1915) Plants collected during the First Thule Expedition to the Northernmost Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland, 51 (10)
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1915) Ruppia anomala sp. nov., an Aberrant Type of the Potamogetonaceae. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 42 (12): 659-662
- Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1916) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part I: Introduction, The sea-grasses of West Australia. Dansk Botanisk ArkivDansk Botanisk ArkivDansk Botanisk Arkiv was a Danish scientific journal or monograph series concerning botany, issued by the Danish Botanical Society. It was published from 1913 to 1980.Articles were written in Danish, German, English and French...
, 2(6): 1-44
- Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1918a) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part II: Stray notes from the tropical West Australia. Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, 2(8) : 1-29
- Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1918b) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part II: A revision of the West Australian species of Triglochin, Crassula (Tillaea) and Frankenia. Dansk Botanisk Arkiv, 2(8) : 30-55
- Ostenfeld, C. E. H. (1921) Contributions to West Australian Botany, part III : Additions and notes to the flora of extra-tropical W. Australia. Biologiske Meddelelser, Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 3(2): 1-144
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1923) Critical Notes on the Taxonomy and Nomenclature of Some Flowering Plants from Northern Greenland (II Thule Expedition 1916-1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1923) Flowering Plants and Ferns from Wolstenholme Sound (ca. 76°30' N. Lat.) and Two Plant Lists from Inglefield Gulf and Inglefield Land (77°28' and 79°10' N. Lat.) (II Thule Expedition 1916-1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64: 189-206
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1924) The Vegetation of the North-Coast of Greenland. Based upon the late Dr. Th. WulffThorild WulffThorild Wulff was a Swedish botanist and polar explorer....
's collections and observations (II Thule Expedition 1916-1918). Meddelelser om Grønland, 64: 221-268 - Ostenfeld, C.H. (1925) Vegetation of North Greenland. Botanical Gazette 80 (2): 213-218.
- Ostenfeld, C. H. (1925) Some Remarks on Species and Chromosomes. American Naturalist 59 (662): 217-218.
- Ostenfeld, C.H. (1926) The flora of Greenland and its origin. Biologiske Meddelelser, Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, 6, 1-71
- Ostenfeld, C.H. (1931) The distribution within Denmark of the higher plants Results of the topographic-botanical investigation. 1: A brief historical survey of the investigation. Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Skrifter, Naturvidenskabelig og Mathematisk Afd., 9. Række, 3(1)
- Ostenfeld, C.H. & Johannes GrøntvedJohannes GrøntvedJohannes Grøntved was a Danish botanist. He made investigations of flora and vegetation in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and Estonia. He was editor of The Botany of Iceland from vol. 3 part 2.-Selected scientific works:...
(1934) The Flora of IcelandIcelandIceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
and the FæroesFaroe IslandsThe Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
. Copenhagen, 1934