In his Faunal Connections between Europe and North America (1957), a landmark study of ecological introductions from Europe to North America that prefigured Alfred Crosby’s Columbian Exchange by three decades, Carl Lindroth sought to explain the distribution of fauna and particularly insects across the North Atlantic. It was the culmination of a multi-year investigation begun in 1949 that had seen the Swedish ecologist and entomologist collect insects in Newfoundland, compare his findings with other North American and European regions, and trace the origins of introduced insects to various sites in southwestern England. Through this work, he identified the ballast of sailing ships as a primary vector of insect introduction to the Americas, argued for the importance of recurring introductions of breeding pairs in successful colonization, and demonstrated the importance of examining a broad range of species introductions, not just those that directly mattered to human history. Conceived and executed in the context of the Cold War, Lindroth’s project benefited from governmental and institutional support that sought to promote transatlantic scientific cooperation and northern research. His path to researching and writing Faunal Connections reveals both the influence of geopolitics in shaping environmental ideas and the capacity for scientists to benefit from strategic funding opportunities while contributing little of strategic value. Lindroth’s work deserves reexamination, both for its substance and for what it can tell us about the ideas behind foundational texts like The Columbian Exchange and, indeed, the making of ideas about global ecological change.
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