Rexford F. Daubenmire

Rexford F. Daubenmire (12 December 1909 — 27 August 1995) was an American botanist and plant ecologist. He made significant contributions to the study of plant ecology throughout the twentieth century, including introducing a vegetation classification scheme, helping define the modern study of ecological succession, and writing the standard reference textbooks for ecologists of the time period. He helped pioneer the sampling techniques still used in vegetation measurement. He served as president of the Ecological Society of America for 1967 and was the 1979 recipient of the Eminent Ecologist Award.

Early life and education Daubenmire was born on 12 December 1909 in Coldwater, Ohio, but grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father worked on the Pennsylvania Railroad and he was an only child. He earned a Bachelor's degree in botany from Butler University in 1930, graduating magna cum laude. He studied under Ray C. Freisner, head of the botany department, and Stanley A. Cain, a plant ecologist, who both influenced his eventual career. He studied the relationship between altitudinal distribution and structures of leaf and conifer twigs. He performed an ecological study of the Big Woods, a temperate hardwood forest ecoregion found in Minnesota.

Career

University work Daubenmire taught botany at the University of Idaho for ten years, from 1936 to 1946. During his tenure, he took trips on his sabbatical years to Costa Rica and Sweden.

Daubenmire instead proposed the community theory: that all organisms within a community were necessarily ecologically interconnected, though the nature and degree of the interrelations changed depending on context: either obligative or indirect. It was originally a 20 cm x 50 cm plot frame, with one corner divided into a 7 cm x 7 cm square. References are marked for 5%, 25%, 50%, and 75% of the frame. If a plant within the frame fills out the 7 cm x 7 cm square, its cover would be 5% of the sampled area. The original design has since been modified to improve cover accuracy for infrequent species within the frame. For best results, it is placed along a tape on predetermined transects, with results systematically recorded.

Other research Daubenmire studied a range of other subjects within plant ecology and botany, including the effects of fire on vegetation, the effects of soil moisture and temperature on conifer distribution, and lichen.

He discovered a new monotypic genus of Boraginaceae (a family of flowering plants that includes the forget-me-not) which is endemic to only a few square kilometers in northern Idaho. Its binomial name, Dasynotus daubenmirei, commemorates him.

Legacy Daubenmire's work was overall well received in his lifetime, and he earned several awards from his peers. His archives are held at the Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC).

Awards

Northwest Scientific Association's Outstanding Scientist Award (1970) Eminent Ecologist Award (1977) American Foresters Barrington Moore Award (1980) Society for Range Management Special Award (1986) Honorary Lifetime Membership of The Nature Conservancy