Chrono-Biographical Sketch: Carl Skottsberg

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists:
Chrono-Biographical Sketches

Skottsberg, Carl Johan Fredrik (Sweden 1880-1963)
botany, exploration

Skottsberg ranks among the greatest botanical explorers of the twentieth century. His early investigations focused on Antarctica and the Magellanic region, but in later years he would travel to all of the continents, and most of them several times. His many treatments of geographical distribution, especially as related to remote island locations, thus incorporated a good deal of in-the-field observational experience. He eventually came to support Joseph Hooker's earlier opinions on the role of Antarctica in helping to distribute species around the southern half of the globe, a view incorporating general waxing and waning of glacial episodes, and associated corridor dispersal along mountain chains (especially the Andes). Skottsberg published some 250 writings overall, most of which dealt with the ecology, floristics and taxonomy of the vegetation of the many places he visited.

Life Chronology

--born in Karlshamn, Sweden, on 1 December 1880.
--1899-1960: numerous travels, all over the world, to study botany
--1901-1904: takes part in the Swedish Antarctic expedition under Nordenskjold
--1907: receives his Ph.D. from the University of Uppsala; hired as lecturer at the University
--1907-1909: leads expedition to southern South America, the Falkland Islands, Juan Fernandez, and South Georgia
--1909-1914: curator at the Botanical Museum, Uppsala
--1911: publishes his The Wilds of Patagonia (in English)
--1915: commissioned by the city of Göteborg to create a botanical garden
--1916-1917: leads expedition to Juan Fernandez, Easter Island, and Chile
--1919: advanced to the rank of professor at Uppsala, but moves to Göteborg shortly thereafter
--1919-1948: director of the botanical garden at Göteborg
--1920-1956: edits the three volumes of The Natural History of Juan Fernandez and Easter Island
--1922, 1926, 1938, 1948: research in Hawaii
--1924-1937: secretary of the Royal Society of Science and Letters of Göteborg
--1929-1949: secretary of the International Commission for Preservation of Wild Life in the Pacific (and president, 1948-1949)
--1931: advanced to rank of professor at Göteborg
--1949: president of the Royal Swedish Academy
--1950: president of the Seventh International Botanical Congress
--1950: made a member of the Royal Society of London
--1960: publishes his "Remarks on the Plant Geography of the Southern Cold Temperate Zone" in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B
--dies at Göteborg on 14 June 1963.

For Additional Information, See:

--The Polar Record, Vol. 12(80) (1965): 633.
--Taxon, Vol 13(1) (1964): 1-7.
--Taxonomic Literature, Vol. 5 (1985).
--Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 10 (1964): 245-256.

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