Sir Arthur George Tansley, born in August of 1871, born from a high class furniture manufacturer, is considered to be one of the people to pioneer the study of ecology. Knighted in 1950, he was known to his friends as A.G. Tansley studied and taught at several universities such as Trinity and Cambridge. He was very fond of Francis Wall Oliver’s (an english botanist) work. As such he became his assistant in his work. Consequently falling in love with plants.
Although considered to be one of the forefathers of ecology, Tansley showed much interest in psychology. This led him to write The New Psychology and Its Relation to Life. This book helped popularize Freudian psychoanalysis. Studying at Cambridge he then both researched psychology and ecology. After which he accepted the Sheridan Chair of Botany at Oxford. There, he then wrote another piece of literature directed to a seperate audience labeled: The British Islands and Their Vegetation. As such, he continued to educate the populous on the fundamentals of ecology. He is credited with the introduction of the term ecosystem, which is one of the most fundamental terms ecology.
He is also one of the founding men of the British Ecological Society, which was the first of its kind worldwide. Tansley was the first president. They acquired enough members to publish the Journal of Ecology where he was their editor. They used his paper The Problems of Ecology as the “founding paper” of the association in 1904A plaque in his honor was placed in 2005. It was placed in Kingley Vale, in South-East England, where Tansley would admire the scenery.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 