Otto Ludwig Lange (21 August 1927 – 14 August 2017 in Würzburg) was a German botanist and lichenologist. The focus of his scientific work was on the ecophysiology of wild and cultivated plants as well as lichens. He investigated heat, frost and drought resistance of lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants growing under extreme environmental conditions.
Life and education Otto Lange was born in Dortmund on 21 August 1927. His family moved to Göttingen, where he went to school. Lange was drafted into the German army at age 16, and became a prisoner of war. This experience affected him greatly as a young man, and later in life he supported anti-war activism. After his return home, he studied biology, chemistry and physics at the Universities of Freiburg and Göttingen. It was from this latter institution that he earned his doctorate degree in 1952, defending a thesis titled "Heat and drought tolerance of lichens in relation to their geographic distribution". His supervisor was Franz Firbas. He also took the state examination for teaching at secondary schools. In 1959 he earned his habilitation in botany. From 1961 to 1963 he was a scientific advisor at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, where he worked as an associate professor in the research group of Otto Stocker. From 1963 to 1967 he held the chair for Forest Botany and Technical Mycology at the University of Göttingen and was responsible for the Forestry Botanical Garden and Arboretum there. From 1967 Lange was Professor of Botany at the University of Würzburg, and also Chair of Plant Ecology, which included the management of the botanical garden. Lange retired in 1992. He was married to the biologist Rose (née Wilhelm), and they had two daughters. Lange died on 14 August 2017 in Würzburg.
Career
Teaching Lange taught general botany, forest botany, forest genetics, plant systematics, general ecology, ecophysiology, vegetation and plant sociology at the universities of Göttingen, Darmstadt and Würzburg. He carried out identification exercises for higher plants, mosses, fungi and lichens, and supervised experimental internships and excursions. He has taught as a visiting scholar at Utah State University, in Australia at Australian National University, and in China at Lanzhou University. Doctoral students Lange has supervised include Ludger Kappen, Burkhard Büdel, Roman Türk and Volkmar Wirth. Lichenologists Thomas Nash and Allan Green have spent considerable time in his laboratory as guest researchers.
Research During Lange's 25 years at the University of Wurzburg he alternated long periods in the field with work analysing results back at the lab and writing scientific papers. The aim of his ecological-botanical research was to quantitatively record the behavior and reactions of wild and cultivated plants, as well as of lichens in their outdoor locations in the interplay with their environment. Possibility of existence, distribution and productivity as a result of their morphological properties and their physiological functions were analyzed and causally interpreted. The water balance and photosynthetic carbon gain were a focus of interest. A constant change between measurements and experiments in the field and working under controlled conditions in the laboratory, for example in climatic chambers, was characteristic of such ecophysiological investigations. His research focused on plants and lichens in extreme growth areas from the Antarctic to the tropical rainforest in Panama. His investigations were both basic research and applied aspectd, such as irrigation cultures in desert areas (e.g. in the Negev desert in Israel), work on forest damage caused by air pollutants, or the analysis of "biological soil crusts" as protection against erosion in arid areas. As exact ecophysiological metabolic measurements on plants under field conditions require a specially designed measurement method, Lange set up mobile field laboratories to continuously record photosynthesis and transpiration in plants. In cooperation with specialist companies (in particular, Heinz Walz GmbH), Lange developed special instruments, for example, air-conditioned cuvettes, and "porometers" to determine gas exchange and diffusion resistance of plants and lichens.
Publications Lange was editor and co-editor of (Photosynthetica (1967–1995), Oecologia (1970–2007), Flora (1964–), Biochemie und Physiologie der Pflanzen, Trees (1986–1998), Botanica Acta(1987–91)), as well as the book series (Ecological Studies, Man and the Biosphere Programme) and specialist books (e.g. 4 volumes of the Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology: Physiological Plant Ecology, Springer-Verlag 1981–1983).
Memberships 1976–1981: "Board of Trustees of the Academy for Nature Conservation and Landscape Management", Munich / Laufen 1981–1988: Founder and spokesman of the Würzburg DFG research group "Ecophysiology" 1982–1989: Founding member and advisory board member of the “Bavarian Forest Toxicology Research Group” of the Bavarian State Ministry for Education and Culture 1987–1990: Chairman of the "Arid Ecosystems Research Center" of the Hebrew University Jerusalem (Israel) 1989–1991: Speaker of the DFG Collaborative Research Center 251 at the University of Würzburg "Ecology, Physiology and Biochemistry of Plant Performance under Stress"
Recognition
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