Robert Whittaker (1920 -1980) is a respected ecologist for his contributions to the field. He is noted for several publications in plant ecology, some of his works are associated with primary production, nutrient cycling and species diversity. His works have known to change and add value of how we view plant ecology today.
Whittaker is also known for proposing the 5 kingdom system which can be seen in classification, the kingdom being Protista, Animalia, Fungi, Plantae, and Monera. He is also known for his studies of ecological communities differentiating between based on temperature and rainfall this was referred to gradient analysis. The communities would be separated in subcategories such as tropical rainforest, temperate rainforest, tundra, woodland, grassland, and shrubland.
His work on supraroganismal theory of plant association can be said be based on his kingdom classification studies. He studied primary production of organisms mostly with shrubs and grasses. His nutrient cycling was combined with his biomass study in plants in which he would observe and test the tree rings to understand better.
Robert Whittaker is not only a researcher but also a professor who has contributed to teaching numerous amount of students. His work is diverse and have a little bit of everything and because of this the study of ecology can continue to progress as the way it is and what it will become in the near possible future.
Some additional readings – https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/1936481
Click to access eminent1981.pdf
Joel B. Hagen, Five Kingdoms, More or Less: Robert Whittaker and the Broad Classification of Organisms, BioScience, Volume 62, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 67–74, https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2012.62.1.11
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 