Alexander von Humboldt.Humboldt, Alexander Von
German Explorer and Scientist 1769-1859
Alexander von Humboldt was the greatest explorer-scientist of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Humboldt's contributions to science were remarkably diverse. He was the first person to map areas of equal air temperature and pressure, a technique now used in every weather forecast around the world. By measuring the magnetism of rocks in the Alps, he found that Earth's magnetic field reverses its polarity. This fundamental discovery allowed geologists in the twentieth century to prove the theory of continental drift. Humboldt also developed the idea of seismic waves thattravel through Earth's surface after an earthquake. In physics, he conducted more than four thousand experiments on electricity and magnetism. Perhaps his most important research, however, concerned the distribution and environmental relationships of plants.
Humboldt's interest in botany developed early on. While a teenager he spent many hours with Karl Willdenow, one of the leading botanists in Europe, collecting and classifying plants in the woods around Berlin. In 1789, while studying at the University of Gottingen, Humboldt met Johann Forster. Forster had accompanied James Cook on a voyage around the world and was one of the best naturalists of his day. On expeditions with Forster to France, England, and the Netherlands, Humboldt learned the techniques of scientific observation, plant classification, and precise measurement that he would employ throughout his long and incredibly productive career.
In 1790, Humboldt began work in plant geography that would revolutionize botany. Humboldt's botanical work was greatly influenced by German natural philosophers such as Immanuel Kant. Kant believed that there was an underlying causal unity in nature and that Earth should be viewed as a single, interconnected whole. Extending these ideas to the study of plants, Humboldt sought to create a universal, holistic science of botany that encompassed both the diversity and connectedness of the natural world. In his words: "Science can only progress … by bringing together all of the phenomena and creations that the earth has to offer … nothing can be considered in isolation. … Nature, despite her seeming diversity, is always a unity."
By 1797 Humboldt had become bored with his work in geology at the German Ministry of Mines. "I was spurred by an uncertain longing for the distant and unknown," he wrote. "For … danger at sea … the desire for adventures." On June 5, 1799, accompanied by his colleague, the botanist Aimé Bonpland, Humboldt embarked on an expedition to South America to "find out how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life." Landing in Cumana, Venezuela, Humboldt spent the next five years exploring un-charted regions of the Oronoco River, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
During this journey, Humboldt survived attacks by Native Americans, tropical disease, starvation, near drowning in capsized canoes, and shocks from electric eels. Despite incredible hardships, he carried out meticulous observations on South American plants, geography, geology, climate, Aztec art, and native languages. In Ecuador, he mapped the zonation of vegetation on mountain sides and correlated this zonation with climatic changes. In Venezuela, anticipating the field of conservation biology, he analyzed complex relationships between logging, river ecology, and erosion. These fundamental studies of the relationships between plants and their environment laid the foundation for the emergence of the science of ecology during the nineteenth century.
Biogeography; Ecology, History Of; Plant Community Processes.
Bibliography
Adams, Alexander B. Eternal Quest: The Story of the Great Naturalists. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1969.
Botting, Douglas. Humboldt and the Cosmos. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.
Von Humboldt, Alexander. Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. New York: Penguin Books, 1995.
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