Stephen Alfred Forbes
| Stephen Alfred Forbes | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
May 29, 1844 Silver Creek, Stephenson County, Illinois, United States |
| Died | March 13, 1930 (aged 85) Urbana, Illinois |
| Fields |
Entomology Ecology |
| Institutions |
University of Illinois Illinois Natural History Survey |
| Alma mater |
Illinois State Normal University Rush Medical College |
| Spouse | Clara Shaw Gaston |
| Children | Bertha Van Hoesen Ernest Browning Winifred Ethel Richard Edwin |
Stephen Alfred Forbes (29 May 1844 – 13 March 1930) was the first Chief of the Illinois Natural History Survey, a founder of aquatic ecosystem science and a dominant figure in the rise of American ecology. His publications are striking for their merger of extensive field observations with conceptual insights. Forbes believed that ecological knowledge was fundamental for human well-being. Forbes was important to the development of ecological theory. He was acknowledged by the National Academy of Sciences as "the founder of the science of ecology in the United States."
While already famous as an economic entomologist, Forbes undertook studies of massive fish mortality in Lake Mendota, Wisconsin. He showed the connection of algae blooms and lake physics to fish kills, and embarked on a remarkable research program into lake ecology and river ecology. Many of his insights about lake ecology were collected in an influential paper, "The Lake as a Microcosm". Notable for both conceptual creativity and the use of innovative quantitative methods, his work foreshadowed the ecosystem concept as well as modern ideas of behavioral ecology and food web dynamics. On top of this, Forbes introduced the concept of a "community of interest" that emphasized two major points: "the first that of a general community of interests among all the classes of organic beings here assembled, and the second that of the beneficent power of natural selection which compels such adjustments of the rated of destruction and of multiplication of the various species as shall best promote this common interest." Stephen Alfred Forbes in 1880 advocated an ecological approach and combinations of resurgence of primary pests, selection of strains of pests resistant to insecticides and general contamination of the environment. Although the term pest management looks new in controlling pests but it is based on decades of development. Stephen Alfred Forbes is said to be the first to work on the pest management.
Stephen Alfred Forbes as showed the importances of local knowledge in the early history of ecology in the United States.
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