IsisCB Explore

Thesis ID: CBB004699922

The Living Seas: Marine Algae, Symbiosis and the Modern Conception of Coral Reefs 1880-1930 (2023)

Emily S. Hutcheson (Author)
Nyhart, Lynn K. (Advisor)

University of Wisconsin at Madison
Nyhart, Lynn K.
Publication date: 2023
Language: English

URI: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2769169688/abstract/BE2AC324D0B54541PQ/56?sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses

Publication Date: 2023
Physical Details: 220

Outside Links

Women in science Symbiosis Coral reefs and islands Corals Algae and algology 20th century, early 19th century Weber-van Bosse, Anna

This dissertation examines the history of coral reef science through the lens of algology, the study of algae. Until now, the history of coral science has centered geological thought in the nineteenth century and ecological science in the late twentieth century. Focusing on the lower status science of algology, this study recuperates a hidden history of contributions to the scientific study of coral reefs by Dutch scientists, women, and a transnational network of as yet unrecognized algologists. By blending analyses of individual scientific studies with imperial-scale approaches to coral reef science, I illuminate how algologists’ contributions to coral science from 1880 to 1930 shaped the modern concept of reefs, which emphasizes their living, organism-like nature. Beginning with the symbiosis studies of Dutch algologist Anna Weber-van Bosse (1852-1942), this dissertation examines the scientific and social aspects of Weber-van Bosse’s career. In the male-dominated space of professional science, Weber-van Bosse employed social strategies to participate fully; these included fostering a transnational correspondence network of algologists. Through this network, which included four women and four men, the women scientists were able to offer and gain mutually beneficial support. In this social context, Weber-van Bosse adjusted her orientation to the nature of how organisms live together symbiotically. Tracing outward, this dissertation brings to light the algologists’ participation in major coral reef studies, including the British Coral Drilling expeditions (1896, ’97, and ‘98), the Dutch Siboga expedition (1899-1900), and the Great Barrier Reef Expedition (1928-1929). Transecting these imperial expeditions, the algological network circulated evidence for a new understanding of reefs that emphasized their living, symbiotic properties. As a result, the accepted definition of reefs as living, symbiotic entities came to incorporate ideas that originated outside of the dominant, English-speaking paradigm of coral science. However, even as the transformation in the definition of reefs to living, physiological entities was complete by 1930—decades before it has usually been recognized-- the algologists who compiled the evidence for it became lost to history. In restoring these people and their fundamental contributions to coral reef science, this dissertation shows how this came to pass and why it matters.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB004699922

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Michele Currie Navakas; (2023)
Coral Lives: Literature, Labor, and the Making of America (/p/isis/citation/CBB265573664/)

Chapter Jan Vandersmissen; (2016)
Experiments and Evolving Frameworks of Scientific Exploration: Jean-André Peyssonnel’s Work on Coral (/p/isis/citation/CBB275483621/)

Article Sally Gregory Kohlstedt; (2022)
Collaboration, Gender, and Leadership at the Minnesota Seaside Station, 1901–1907 (/p/isis/citation/CBB776368569/)

Article Pat Hutchings; Barbara E. Brown; Maria Byrne; Sarah Hamylton; Tom Spencer; (2022)
The remarkable contributions of ten outstanding women to Australian coral reef science (/p/isis/citation/CBB661040665/)

Article Emily S. Hutcheson; (2022)
A “Central Bureau of Feminine Algology:” Algae, Mutualism, and Gendered Ecological Perspectives, 1880–1910 (/p/isis/citation/CBB102680700/)

Article Bi, Lie-jue; Liu, Guo-xiang; Hu, Zheng-yu; (2004)
Hu Jingfu's Study of Algae: The First Paper on Chinese Freshwater Algae Published by a Chinese Scientist (/p/isis/citation/CBB000502066/)

Article Brown, Barbara E.; (2007)
The Legacy of Professor John Stanley Gardiner FRS to Reef Science (/p/isis/citation/CBB000760059/)

Book Darwin, Charles Robert; Burkhardt, Frederick; Secord, James A.; (2015)
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551936/)

Article Ottmar Ette; (2017)
Texte-île et écriture archipélique: Isle de Cube, Antilles en général d’Alexander von Humboldt (/p/isis/citation/CBB283436335/)

Article Ali Mirza; (2022)
Alexander Dalrymple, the Utility of Coral Reefs, and Charles Darwin’s Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (/p/isis/citation/CBB656466850/)

Article John G. Day; Michael Francis Turner; (2018)
Live Protist Curation at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, 1884–2017 (/p/isis/citation/CBB332699578/)

Article J. A. Bryant; H. Plasier; L. M. Irvine; A. McLean; M. Jones; M. E. Spencer Jones; (2016)
Life and work of Margaret Gatty (1809–1873), with particular reference to British sea-weeds (1863) (/p/isis/citation/CBB681478860/)

Article Wysokinska, B.; (2007)
Unknown Correspondence of Józef Rostafinski with Edouard Bornet on Algae Research (1875--1878) (/p/isis/citation/CBB000931660/)

Article Geraldine Reid; John Edmondson; (2024)
Henry Gustave Hiller (1864–1946): British stained glass artist, naturalist and illustrator (/p/isis/citation/CBB330698064/)

Article Rudolf Hagemann; (2007)
The Reception of the Schimper-Mereschkowsky Endosymbiont Hypothesis on the Origin of Plastids – Between 1883 and 1960 – Many Negative, but a Few Relevant Positive Reactions (/p/isis/citation/CBB646993687/)

Article Perru, Olivier; (2006)
Aux origines des recherches sur la symbiose, vers 1868-1883 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000770990/)

Chapter Sponsel, Alistair; (2013)
Darwin's Theory of Coral Reef Formation (/p/isis/citation/CBB001202260/)

Article Monson, Charles; (2012)
Louis Agassiz and the Fossil Reefs of Iowa (/p/isis/citation/CBB001251738/)

Book Dobbs, David; (2005)
Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral (/p/isis/citation/CBB000500280/)

Thesis Anne M. Ricculli; (2018)
Reading Coral in the Age of Darwin (/p/isis/citation/CBB757133254/)