American Botanist
1874-1945

More than any scientist of his time, Frederic Clements (1874-1945) developed the methods and ideas that helped ecologists unravel nature's complexity. Indeed, ecology is arguably the most complex of all the sciences. The natural world that ecologists seek to understand is in constant flux. The weather and hundreds of other variables in the environment change from day to day, month to month, and from year to year. In any given habitat thousands of species and millions of individual plants and animals interact in a bewildering array of intricate associations.

When Clements arrived at the University of Nebraska in 1892 to begin studies in botany, the science of ecology was just beginning to crystallize from its diverse origins in plant physiology, plant geography, and plant morphology. Clements had been influenced by several European botanists, especially the German plant geographer Oscar Drude. Drawing on the ideas...