biology

Wheeler J. North

Wheeler J. North is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Wheeler J. North rather than just read about it. In short: Wheeler James North (January 2, 1922 – December 20, 2002), born in San Francisco, California, was a marine biologist and environmental scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the California Institute of Technology. He is best known for his pioneering work to understand the ecology of California’s coastal kelp forests, and pioneering work in biomass fuels and the sequestration of atmospheric carbon d…

Key takeaways

Wheeler J. North belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Wheeler J. North to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Wheeler J. North from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Wheeler James North (January 2, 1922 – December 20, 2002), born in San Francisco, California, was a marine biologist and environmental scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the California Institute of Technology. He is best known for his pioneering work to understand the ecology of California’s coastal kelp forests, and pioneering work in biomass fuels and the sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Early life, military service and education Wheeler James North was born January 2, 1922, in San Francisco to Wheeler O. and Florence (Ross) North, and grew up at a mining camp at La Fe in Zacatecas, Mexico, as his father was a mining engineer and his mother was an assay chemist. In 1927, the family moved to La Jolla, California. In 1940, North graduated from The Thacher School in Ojai, California and entered college at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). While still in college in December 1942, North enlisted in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, which allowed him to complete his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1944. After training in U.S. Army Officers Candidate School at Fort Monmouth in New Jersey, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps and assigned to the Philippines. However, North arrived in Southeast Asia after VJ Day in August 1945 but stayed in the Philippines and Japan as part of the American occupying forces until August 1946. After two years working with the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, North returned to Caltech in September 1948 and completed a second bachelor's degree in biology in 1950. North earned masters and Ph.D. degrees in Biological Oceanography at the University of California Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1953 studying in the laboratory of Denis Fox. North undertook postdoctoral work with a National Science Foundation fellowship at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and Cambridge University in England.

Academic career Wheeler James North began his academic career teaching at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1953, after which North joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in September 1962. Although North taught marine biology courses at the Caltech main campus in Pasadena, North spent much of his time undertaking research at the Caltech’s Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory in Corona del Mar. North’s principal research interest was marine ecology, specifically the kelp beds off Southern California and the population ecology of sea urchins. North studied the effects of sewage outfalls and El Niño on kelp forests, and the predation of kelp by sea urchins. North served as a consultant for California’s kelp-harvesting industry. North was one of the first marine scientists to employ SCUBA technology for marine research beginning as a student in 1949. While at Scripps, North worked with group studying the physiology of diving and was a pioneer in establishing scientific diving safety protocols. North was a consulting scientist after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill, and after 1973 oil crisis, he studied the possibility of kelp farms to produce biomass as an alternative fuel. North contributed to the growth of the kelp farming industry in China. North also studied the ecological effects of warm-water discharges from nuclear power plants on kelp forests, and in the early 1990s North undertook studies to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide using marine biomass and clathrate hydrates.

Selected publications

North, W.J. and C.F.A. Pantin. (1958). Sensitivity to light in the sea-anemone Metridium senile (L): adaptation and action spectra. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 148:385-396. North, W.J. (1968). The Golden Guide to Scuba Diving: Handbook of Underwater Activities. Golden Press, New York. 160pp. ISBN 978-0-307-24012-5. North, W.J. and J.S. Pearse. (1970). Sea urchin population explosion in southern California coastal waters. Science 167:209-210. North, W.J. (1975). Underwater California. University of California Press, Berkeley. 320pp. ISBN 978-0-520-03039-8. North, W.J. (1979). Adverse factors affecting giant kelp and associated seaweeds. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences. 35:445-447. Wheeler, P.A. and W.J. North (1981). Nitrogen supply, tissue composition and frond growth rates for Macrocystis pyrifera off the coast of southern California. Marine Biology 64:59-69. Wilson, K.C. and W.J. North (1983). A review of kelp bed management in southern California. Journal of the World Mariculture Society 14:345-359. Wilcox, H.A. and W.J. North (1988). Carbon dioxide reduction and reforestation. Science 247:1493-1494. North, W.J., V. R. Blackwell, and J.J. Morgan. (1992). Studies of carbon dioxide hydrate formation and dissolution. Environmental Science and Technology 32(5):676-681.

Personal life and legacy Wheeler James North was married on 16 Aug 1952 in La Jolla to Nancy J. Fountain (1927-2011) of Oklahoma, who was a laboratory technician at Scripps Oceanographic Institution and they had a daughter Hannah C. North (b. 1955) and son Wheeler O. North (b. 1957). On April 25, 1964, North married his second wife, biologist Barbara A. Best. In 1974, Barbara Best North was a co-author along with Grover C. Stephens of a textbook on Biology. She received further training as a physician and she entered private practice specializing in holistic health. Upon North's death on December 20, 2002, at Newport Beach, California, the Southern California Academy of Sciences established the Wheeler North Award for Scientific Excellence given for excellence in research emphasizing the Southern California area and a commitment to the Southern California scientific community.

References

External links Guide to the Wheeler J. North Papers, Caltech Archives, California Institute of Technology

Illustrations

Wheeler J. North: Underwater California by Wheeler J. North 1975 University of California Press — Underwater California by Wheeler J. North 1975 University of California Press

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Wheeler J. North

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Wheeler J. North claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Wheeler J. North before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Wheeler J. North ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Wheeler J. North

In research: Wheeler J. North appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Wheeler J. North in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Wheeler J. North is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1922 births, 2002 deaths, 20th-century American biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Wheeler J. North outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Wheeler J. North” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Wheeler J. North in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Wheeler J. North means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Wheeler J. North out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Wheeler J. North in simple terms?

Why does Wheeler J. North matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Wheeler J. North?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Wheeler J. North.