Karl Eduard Linsenmair

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Karl Eduard Linsenmair (born 8 February 1940) is a German biologist and university professor emeritus. His areas of work are general ecology, ethoecology, ecophysiology, sociobiology and orientation physiology; his focus is tropical ecology.

Contents

Life

Linsenmair was born in Munich. He studied zoology, botany, chemistry, anthropology and psychology in Heidelberg, Freiburg and Frankfurt. He received his dissertation in 1966 German : Konstruktion und Signalfunktion der Sandpyramide der Reiterkrabbe Ocypode saratan Forsk. (Decapoda Brachyura Ocypodidae)(Construction and signaling function of the sand pyramid of the rider crab Ocypode saratan Forsk). (Decapoda Brachyura Ocypodidae)) received his doctorate. At the Goethe University Frankfurt in Frankfurt am Main he was a DFG research fellow from 1967 to 1970 and a research assistant in the biology department at the University of Regensburg in 1970/1971 . He completed his habilitation in 1971 and taught at the University of Regensburg from 1972 to 1976. In 1976 he took over the chair of animal ecology at the Zoological Institute of the University of Würzburg.

Linsenmair has made a decisive contribution to the establishment and promotion of the research areas of tropical ecology and biodiversity. He initiated and coordinated the German Research Foundation (DFG) priority program “Mechanisms for the Conservation of Tropical Diversity” and the European Science Foundation program "Tropical Canopy Research", which has since been expanded to a global level. [1] As the only biologist in the National Committee for Global Change Research, he was significantly involved in the development of the concept for the BMBF program BIOLOG-BIOTA. In this context, he led the BIOTA-West program, which aimed to use findings from basic ecological research to find concrete solutions to problems on the African continent. [1]  He and his chair were responsible for the scientific and administrative coordination of 16 universities and scientific institutes in Germany, Burkina Faso, Benin and Ivory Coast.

Research in Africa

In the 1980s, Linsenmair developed plans to build a permanent ecological research station in the savannah of the Ivory Coast. [2] On a research trip there in 1973, he was fascinated by the incredible diversity of the different frogs. The Comoé National Park has been a world heritage site since 1983. In 1989 the first huts were built from bushes and leaves, eaten by termites within a year and rebuilt. As early as 1991, Linsenmair received funding from the Thyssen Foundation for his ecological research station. Due to bureaucratic hurdles imposed by offices, authorities and ministries, collecting all the signatures from the 20 bodies took nine years; [2] construction work on the research station did not begin until 1999.

In 2002, Linsenmair's research group moved to the massive camp, which was well equipped for zoological, botanical and ecological research. [2] This was unique in West Africa. Linsenmair made important contributions to biodiversity research in West Africa. In addition to the occurrence and behavior of individual animal species, he examined global change, the spread of deserts and the loss of biodiversity. In September 2002, an international delegation visited the research station. Just a few weeks later, the First Ivorian Civil War began in Ivory Coast, which raged directly at Linsenmair's station. He and his European colleagues were flown out and were only able to return ten years later. During this time, Linsenmair led the Biota West Africa project from Benin and Burkina Faso. The project conducted biodiversity research and built an international network. [2]

In 2010, after almost two years of planning and construction, the new information center on biodiversity was opened by Karl Eduard Linsenmair and Robert Foro in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, in which the collected knowledge will now be made available to the general public. [3]  The civil war officially ended in 2007, but it was only in 2011 that the government became somewhat stable and was able to contain the unrest that was flaring up. In 2012, Linsenmair returned to the savannah after the civil war and found the research station in ruins. He and his colleagues rebuilt everything. Today there are 14 guest houses with air conditioning and running water at a distance around the main building. The centerpiece is a long research building with a library, offices and laboratories. The station has had an internet connection since 2014 and research operations have started again. [2]  Several students and doctoral candidates are researching various projects here and have already published their first scientific publications.

Memberships and honors

Karl Eduard Linsenmair became president of the Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie (Society for Tropical Ecology) (gtö) in 1990, and has been an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina since 1997 and of the Academia Europaea since 1998. [4] [1]  He is also president of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö). He is chairman of the scientific advisory board and member of the board of trustees of the ZMT (Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research) in Bremen as well as a member of the scientific advisory board and the board of trustees of the German arm of World Wide Fund for Nature. He is also a member of various advisory boards and committees (“Global Change Research”, Senckenberg Research Institute, Natural History Museum, Berlin, DFG Zoology Review Board for the subject “Ecology and Ecosystem Research”). [1]

In 1996 Linsenmair received the Körber Prize for European Science. [1]  In 2014, Linsenmair was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit from the University of Würzburg for his contributions to research. [1]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost crab</span> Subfamily of crustaceans

Ghost crabs are semiterrestrial crabs of the subfamily Ocypodinae. They are common shore crabs in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world, inhabiting deep burrows in the intertidal zone. They are generalist scavengers and predators of small animals. The name "ghost crab" derives from their nocturnality and their generally pale coloration. They are also sometimes called sand crabs, though the name refers to various other crabs that do not belong to the subfamily.

<i>Ocypode</i> Genus of tropical and subtropical crustaceans

Ocypode is a genus of ghost crabs found in the sandy shores of tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. They have a box-like body, thick and elongated eyestalks, and one claw is larger than the other in both males and females. They inhabit deep burrows in the intertidal zone. They are primarily nocturnal, and are generalist scavengers and predators of small animals. The genus contains 21 species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comoé National Park</span>

The Comoé National Park is a Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Zanzan and Savanes districts of northeastern Côte d'Ivoire. It is the largest protected area in West Africa, with an area of 11,500 square kilometers (4,400 sq mi), and ranges from the humid Guinea savanna to the dry Sudanian zone. This steep climatic north–south gradient allows the park to harbor a multitude of habitats with a remarkable diversity of life. Some animal and plant species even find their last sanctuary in some of the different savanna types, gallery forests, riparian grasslands, rock outcrops, or forest islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocypodidae</span> Family of crabs

The Ocypodidae are a family of semiterrestrial crabs that includes the ghost crabs and fiddler crabs. They are found on tropical and temperate shorelines around the world.

<i>Johngarthia</i> Genus of crabs

Johngarthia is a genus of crabs in the land crab family Gecarcinidae, formerly included in the genus Gecarcinus, and containing six species. The genus bears the name of John S. Garth, a 20th century naturalist who specialized in crabs and other arthropods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hubert Markl</span> German biologist (1938–2015)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic ghost crab</span> Species of crustacean

The Atlantic ghost crab, Ocypode quadrata, is a species of ghost crab. It is a common species along the Atlantic coast of the United States, where it is the only species of ghost crab; its range of distribution extends from its northernmost reach on beaches in Westport, Massachusetts, south along the coasts of the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean to the beach of Barra do Chui, in Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.

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<i>Ocypode brevicornis</i> Species of crab

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden ghost crab</span> Species of crustacean

Ocypode convexa, commonly known as the golden ghost crab, or alternatively the western ghost crab or yellow ghost crab, is a species of ghost crabs endemic to the coast of Western Australia, from Broome to Perth. They are relatively large ghost crabs, with a carapace growing up to 45 mm (1.8 in) long and 52 mm (2.0 in) wide. They are easily recognisable by their golden yellow colouration. Like other ghost crabs they have box-like bodies with unequally sized claws. They also have large eyestalks with the cornea occupying most of the bottom part.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comoé National Park Research Station</span>

The Comoé National Park Research Station, located in the Comoé National Park, Côte d'Ivoire, was founded by Professor Karl Eduard Linsenmair, a German biologist, in 1989/90.

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<i>Tubuca flammula</i> Species of crab

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References

[5] [6] [7] [8]

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Biozentrum: Verdienstmedaillen in Gold" [Biozentrum: Gold Medals of Merit]. Biozentrum. 2015-04-27. Archived from the original on 2015-04-27. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Habekuß, Fritz (2015-03-12). "Elfenbeinküste: Immer Fernweh, niemals Heimweh" [The patron and his paradise]. Die Zeit (in German). ISSN   0044-2070 . Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  3. ↑ Bartsch, Gunnar (2010-03-26). "Ein Infozentrum für die biologische Vielfalt" [An information center for biological diversity]. Cultura21 (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  4. ↑ "Academy of Europe: Linsenmair Karl Eduard". www.ae-info.org. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  5. ↑ "Tropenforscher Karl Eduard Linsenmair und der Termiten-Trick" [Tropical researcher Karl Eduard Linsenmair and the termite trick]. Main Post (in German). 2018-12-15. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  6. ↑ https://research.com/u/k-eduard-linsenmair
  7. ↑ "Karl Eduard Linsenmair". bienen-nachrichten.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-04-18.
  8. ↑ "DFG - GEPRIS - Professor Dr. Karl Eduard Linsenmair". gepris.dfg.de. Retrieved 2024-04-18.
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