Christian Theodor Vaupell, a Danish 19th century naturalist and a pioneering developer of the Quaternary geoscience

Abstract

Abstract. Christian Theodor Vaupell (1821-1862) was a Danish scholar with pioneering investigations particularly on the late Quaternary development of bog forests, but also microscopy of plant anatomy and vegetative reproduction. His studies contributed to the early scientific thinking of the Quaternary environmental changes. Before his academic efforts, he had already survived the war between Prussia and Denmark albeit he became severely wounded and his left arm was amputated. The drama of his academic efforts, on the other hand, lies in the more or less suspicious dispute of his first doctoral thesis and his dismissal from the academic world during the following years. At the same time, he earned praise for his first thesis (never accepted as thesis but published as a regular book) from abroad; he was also able to attract private foundations for financial support of his scientific work. Following the enthusiasm of his time, Vaupell became attracted to the pine megafossils known to have been preserved in the bogs in north-west Europe. The megafossils led him to study not only the life systems of the ancient and modern bog forests but also their associations with Earth processes. As an interesting detail of his research, Vaupell made compound interpretations on the occurrence of megafossil stumps and their tree-ring growth patterns. In the course of the 20th century, Vaupell's studies have been cited as a general reference of post-glacial vegetation change and plant succession rather than clearly pioneering investigations of palaeoecology, an angle that we would like put into a contrasting perspective. To do so, we provide a brief portrait of Christian Vaupell and his research career. In conclusion, we wish to emphasize the comprehensiveness of Vaupell's views on the late Quaternary vegetation changes and the role of plant succession in that development. School days, early studies and military serviceChristian Vaupell was born in Kolding, Denmark, 14 October 1821, the son of Lieutenant colonel Johan Wilhelm Ludvig Vaupell and wife Margrethe Dorthea Karberg. Christian Vaupell attended the local school of which he remembered with gratitude. Seeds of inspiration were sown by those school teachers that were enthusiastic and keen to educate the pupils. Bryndum taught in history and geography, and Borgen guided the pupils out to botanize. During vacations, Christian Vaupell contributed with specimens to L. Hansen's herbarium in the duchies of Holstein and Schleswig.By completing examen atrium in 1841, Vaupell qualified for admission to the university, where he became deeply interested in the societies of the antiquity and their relationship to the modern society, as well as theology. Vaupell took the examen philosophicum, and later received the academic degree candidatus theologiae, from the University of Copenhagen in 1847. Shortly after, he continued with botany and obtained insights into the other natural sciences. He attended the lectures by Prof. Johan Georg Forchhammer about the geological periods and their flor...

Depositional history of peatland pines (Pinus sylvestrisL.) in NW Enontekiö, Finnish Lapland: implications for Middle Holocene drought and temperature fluctuations

“…This model was used to estimate the long-term mean July temperature (°C) and temperature sum (degree-days), as interpolated for each site based on their coordinates, continentality and altitude. These variables were selected as they have been previously found to be related to the germination of pine seeds (Henttonen et al 1986) as well as the occurrence (Norokorpi 1994;Mikkola & Virtanen 2006) and growth (Helama et al 2010a(Helama et al , 2012 of northern pines.…”

“…A threshold value of 500 grains cm À2 a À1 for the presence/absence of pine in the immediate vicinity of the site (Hyv€ arinen 1975; Hicks & Hyv€ arinen 1999;Sepp€ a et al 2002) was accepted. In addition, the tree-ring (Helama et al 2010a) and pollenbased July temperature reconstructions, and their amalgamated record representing sub-Arctic sites from the northernmost regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Kola Peninsula (Helama et al 2012), were compared with the peatland pine records from the Pousuj€ arven suo site. Hydroclimatic reconstructions inferred from cladoceran evidence, demonstrating the past fluctuations in lake levels in the Jierstivaara, Isohattu and Kuttanen sites (Korhola et al 2005; see Fig.…”

“…Calculated from annually resolved temperature estimates, originating from a fusion of pollen and tree-ring data (Helama et al 2012), mean July temperatures 2.0 and 1.7 °C warmer than the present-day (AD 1961(AD -1990 conditions characterized the peatland pine phases I and II, respectively. These estimates suggest a midsummer temperature of around 13 °C or higher when pine was present at the Pousuj€ arven suo site, this value markedly exceeding the threshold of 12.2 °C, of which isoline has been found to stand as a statistical model for the timberline of pine in the region (Mikkola & Virtanen 2006).…”

The Integrated Use of Dendrochronological Data and Paleoecological Records From Northwest European Peatlands and Lakes for Understanding Long-Term Ecological and Climatic Changes—A Review

“…For close to two centuries, researchers have studied layers of subfossil tree remains discovered in peatlands (Dau, 1829;Steenstrup, 1842;Sernander, 1890;Birks, 2008;Nielsen and Helama, 2012), but it was not until the late 1960s that serious attempts to develop treering chronologies from such peatland trees were initiated (Pilcher et al, 1977). During the 1970s and 1980s, several multi-millennial tree-ring chronologies were developed from subfossil oak excavated from peatlands in Ireland and Germany (Pilcher et al, 1977(Pilcher et al, , 1984Leuschner and Delorme, 1984).…”

Late-Holocene expansion of a south Swedish peatland and its impact on marginal ecosystems: Evidence from dendrochronology, peat stratigraphy and palaeobotanical data

“…Periods of relatively warm and dry climatic conditions may sometimes allow trees to establish on peat bogs, and tree horizons buried in peat deposits are clear indications of past episodes of decreased bog-surface wetness (Eckstein et al, 2009; Edvardsson et al, 2012a, 2012b; Leuschner et al, 2002). Pioneer studies describing layers of wood in Scandinavian peat deposits and their relationships to climate change were performed already 150 years ago, as reviewed by Birks and Seppä (2010) and Nielsen and Helama (2012). Since the establishment of dendrochronology in the early 20th century (Douglass, 1921), considerable methodological improvements have taken place, and annually resolved ring-width (RW) records are now frequently used in palaeoclimatology (Fritts, 1976; Hughes et al, 2011; Lindbladh et al, 2013).…”