Denis Christopher Lindsay

Last updated
Denis Lindsay
Born1943or1944(age 80–81) [1]
NationalityBritish
Alma mater Exeter University
University of Birmingham
Scientific career
Fields Lichenology
Institutions British Antarctic Survey
Author abbrev. (botany) D.C.Linds.

Denis Christopher Lindsay (born 1943/1944) is a British botanist who made contributions to the field of Antarctic lichenology as part of the British Antarctic Survey. He was among the first professional botanists to perform floristic surveys on several Antarctic islands. His seminal work, The Macrolichens of South Georgia, was one of only three treatments of Antarctic lichens published before the 21st-century.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Lindsay attended Downer Grammar School. In 1965, the 21-year-old Lindsay was living in Kenton, London. He earned a bachelor's degree in botany from Exeter University. [1] He later obtained his Ph.D from the Botany Department at the University of Birmingham in 1971. [2]

Career

In 1965, Lindsay left England with the British Antarctic Survey to study lichen growth rates. The aim of the study was to determine how long the Antarctic islands have been free from a permanent ice cap. [1] From 1965 to 1967, he was stationed on the South Shetland Islands and Signy Island. Here Lindsay furthered the work of lichenologist Elke Mackenzie through the documentation of species and the collection of herbarium specimens. [3] During the austral summer of 1965 to 1966, Lindsay became the first botanist to survey King George Island. He studied the floristics of both lichens and moss. [4] While on Signy Island, he was upset after unexpectedly having to serve as meteorologist for the mission. [5]

After the end of his first tour, Lindsay brough back living lichen specimens to Winterbourne in Birmingham. He noted their high survivorship despite the urban environment. [6] In 1971, Lindsay published Vegetation of the South Shetland Islands, and in doing so was the first professional botanist to report on the flora of Half Moon Island and King George Island. [4] [7]

Lindsay returned to the Antarctic with the BAS from 1971 to 1972. He made botanical collections on the island of South Georgia, where he focused his attention on the genus Cladonia . [8] In 1974, Lindsay published his seminal monograph The Macrolichens of South Georgia. [3] It was one of only three treatments of Antarctic lichens published before the start of the 21st-century, the other two being Carroll William Dodge's discredited Lichen Flora of the Antarctic Continent and Adjacent Islands (1973) and Jorge Redón Figueroa's Liquenes Antarticos (1985). [9]

From 1974 to 1976, Lindsay served as Assistant Keeper in Botany at the Leicester Town Museum. [10] In the 1980s, he led surveyors from the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country to collect lichens in the West Midlands. [11]

Legacy

The lichen Parmelia lindsayana , first discovered on Signy Island, is named in Lindsay's honor. The holotype was collected by him in 1966. [12] Ryszard Ochyra considered Lindsay "a good English lichenologist and effective collector". [13]

Many of Lindsay's herbarium specimens are housed at the British Antarctic Survey Herbarium (AAS) in Cambridge. [14] Others are held at the Leicestershire Museum Service Herbarium (LSR) in Leicester. [10]

Selected publications

In addition to his solo works, Lindsay contributed chapters to publications including Mark Seaward's Lichen Ecology (1977) [15] and M. C. Clark's A Fungus Flora of Warwickshire (1981). [16]

The standard author abbreviation D.C.Linds. is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name. [17] He is incorrectly attributed as "David C. Lindsay" in Authors of Plant Names . [18]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "To Spend Two Years on Antarctic Survey". Harrow Observer. 9 September 1965. p. 3. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  2. ↑ British Antarctic Survey Archives Catalog; D.C. Lindsay Series. British Antarctic Survey.
  3. 1 2 Øvstedal, D. O.; Smith, R. I. Lewis (17 May 2001). Lichens of Antarctica and South Georgia: A Guide to Their Identification and Ecology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-66241-3 . Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  4. 1 2 Ochyra, Ryszard (1998). The Moss Flora of King George Island, Antarctica. Polish Academy of Sciences, W. Szafer Institute of Botany. ISBN   978-83-85444-60-2 . Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  5. ↑ Edwards, John (May 2015). ""Non Oral" or written Histories: John Arthur Edwards ('Percy')" (PDF). BAS Club Magazine. 73. British Antarctic Survey Club. Retrieved 23 August 2024. I was left very much on my own, except for lichenologist Denis Lindsay who had just returned from Signy, rather embittered by the fact that he had been forced to serve as a meteorologist, when he had understood from Martin Holdgate that he would be going south as a scientist.
  6. ↑ Rotheroe, Maurice (7 April 1971). "The plants that come in from the cold: Corner of Antarctica ...in Edgbaston". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  7. ↑ Schmitz, Daniela; Putzke, Jair; de Albuquerque, Margéli Pereira; Schünemann, Adriano Luis; Vieira, Frederico Costa Beber; Victoria, Filipe de Carvalho; Pereira, Antônio Batista (January 2018). "Description of plant communities on Half Moon Island, Antarctica". Polar Research. 37 (1): 1523663. doi: 10.1080/17518369.2018.1523663 . ISSN   1751-8369.
  8. ↑ British Antarctic Survey Archives Service. Archives ref. LS2/4/1/4. Copyright UKRI - BAS
  9. ↑ Weinstein, Rick (August 2002). "The Mycologist's Bookshelf" (PDF). Inoculum. 53 (4). Mycological Society of America. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  10. 1 2 Fletcher, A. (March 1979). "The Herbarium - Leicestershire Museums Service" (PDF). Biology Curators Group Newsletter. 2 (2). Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  11. ↑ "Lichens of Birmingham and the Black Country" (PDF). British Lichen Society Bulletin (113). Winter 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  12. ↑ Øvstedal, D. O.; Elix, J. A.; Lewis Smith, R. I. (1996). "A new species of Parmelia (lichenized Ascomycotina) from the Antarctic". Mycotaxon. 57: 151–153.
  13. ↑ Ochyra, Ryszard (2002). "Book Review" (PDF). Polish Polar Research. 23 (3–4): 297. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  14. ↑ Fryday, Alan; Orange, Alan; Ahti, Tuevo Tapio; Øvstedal, Dag Olav; Crabtree, Dafydd E. (December 2019). "An annotated checklist of lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi reported from the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)". Glalia: Revista Electrónica del Grupo Latinoamericano de Liquenólogos. 8 (1). Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  15. ↑ Daniëls, F. J. A. (1 January 1981). "Book Review". Vegetatio. 44 (1): 36. doi:10.1007/BF00119799. ISSN   0042-3106.
  16. ↑ Robson, N. K. B (September 1981). "Book Notes" (PDF). BSBI News (28).
  17. ↑ International Plant Names Index.  D.C.Linds.
  18. ↑ "Lindsay, Denis Christopher". kiki.huh.harvard.edu. Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. Retrieved 23 August 2024.
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