Charles Krebs | |
|---|---|
 Krebs in 2007 | |
| Born | Charles Joseph Krebs (1936-09-17)17 September 1936 (age 89) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Ecology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance |
| Spouse | Alice |
| Children | 2 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Population ecology |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | The lemming cycle at Baker Lake, N.W.T., during 1959-61 (1962) |
| Doctoral advisor | Dennis Chitty |
| Other academic advisors | Ian McTaggart-Cowan |
| Website | http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~krebs/ |
Charles Joseph KrebsFRSCFAA FRZS (born 17 September 1936) is aprofessor emeritus ofpopulation ecology in theUniversity of British Columbia Department of Zoology.[1] He is also Thinker-in-residence at the Institute for Applied Ecology at theUniversity of Canberra, Australia. He is renowned for his work on thefence effect, as well as his widely used ecology textbookEcology: The Experimental Analysis of Distribution and Abundance.[2]
Krebs was interested mostly in smaller mammal ecology and in 1965 conducted an experiment on voles.[3] He fenced in an area of grassland in an Indiana pasture about the size of a soccer field and observed what happened to the population of voles living inside the fenced area.[3]This was when he founded the widely known "Fence Effect".[3] Within a year of living in the fenced area the voles had increased by about five times, which is much more than they would in an unfenced area.[3] He then observed that the population experienced a crash, just like the unfenced populations do.[3] Krebs believed this was due to social behaviour among the voles and could be applied to other animals like them.[3] The voles had no place to migrate therefore the final crash seemed to stem from an increase of competition, aggressive behaviour, and decreased resources.[3]
Krebs also worked in British Columbia and Northern Canada for over 40 years to look at cyclic populations of mammals.[4] during this time he was able to transform the field of ecology from a descriptive science to an experimental discipline.[4] For 20 years he studied the 10-year population cycle of snowshoe hares and their predators in the Yukon.[3] He found that the population size of the snowshoe hares is regulated by predators such as the lynx, coyote, great horned owls and goshawks.[3] 90% of their deaths were found to be due to these predators and almost none because of starvation and disease.[3]
During his career, Krebs made the case for basic research.
If someone asks me if my work has economic benefit I say absolutely none. And then they ask 'well why are you doing it' and I say that we need to understand the world we live in. It enriches our lives.
— Charles Krebs, Q&A: Dr. Charles Krebs on a lifetime of science, Canadian Geographic[5]
A summary of Krebs work and his influence on students and colleagues (Judith H. Myers,Stan Boutin,Rudy Boonstra andTony Sinclair can be seen in a series of seminars entitled"Krebs´ ecologists: on population regulation"
