Klaus Rohde was born in Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, on 30 March 1932.[1] He attended the Saldria Gymnasium and Nikolai-Schule in Brandenbug, earning his Abitur in 1949. Rohde went on to study at the Teachers Training College in Brandenburg, receiving, in 1950, a Teacher's Diploma in Russian language. From 1950 to 1951, he studied Slavic languages at the University of Potsdam. Near the end of 1951 he moved from East to West Germany, enrolling at the University of Münster, studying botany, zoology, physics and physiological chemistry. Rohde undertook research for his PhD in 1954,[2] under the supervision of Berhard Rensch, a notable German zoologist;[3] his thesis was on the behaviour and physiology of Paramecium. In 1957 he was awarded his PhD, magna cum laude.[2]
Taxonomy in particular of trematodes and monogeneans (many new species, 11 new genera and 2 new subfamilies, for one new genus a new family has now been established).[4]
Rohde was the first who supplied quantitative evidence for the enormous species diversity of marine parasites in tropical (coral reef) waters, and for differences in latitudinal gradients between endo- and ectoparasites.[citation needed] His hypothesis of effective evolutionary time was an important stimulus for the development of the metabolic theory of ecology. His work on the phylogeny of Platyhelminthes provided evidence that the Neodermata (major groups of parasitic Platyhelminthes) have split early off the other flatworm groups. His demonstration of the great number and variety of sensory receptors and of the great complexity of nervous systems in some parasitic flatworms is convincing evidence that sacculinization (reduction in complexity) of parasites is not a general phenomenon. Rohde's work on the ecology of marine parasites has shown that most parasites live in largely non-saturated niche space, i.e., that most niches are vacant; proceeding from these findings, he concluded that equilibrium conditions in animal communities are the exception rather than the rule (discussed in detail in his book Nonequilibrium Ecology).
After retirement he continues to publish scientific papers and books. He has cooperated with Dietrich Stauffer, a theoretical physicist, in using mathematical models to investigate latitudinal gradients in species diversity and niche width. He is running two blogs with articles and posts on science, politics and philosophy [5] and.[6]
Honors
Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales (1996, Zoology).
Rohde has published about 480 scientific papers in international journals and book chapters, as well as several books.
Books
Rohde, Klaus (1993). Ecology of Marine Parasites 2nd edition. Wallingford, Oxon, U.K.: CAB International. ISBN0-85198-845-8.
Rohde, Klaus (2005). Nonequilibrium Ecology. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-67455-7.[9]
Rohde, Klaus, ed. (2005). Marine Parasitology. Melbourne and Wallingford, Oxon, U.K.: CSIRO Publ. and CAB International. ISBN1-84593-053-3.[10]
Rohde, Klaus, ed. (2013). The Balance of Nature and Human Impact. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-1-107-01961-4.[11]
The first edition of Ecology of Marine Parasites, University of Queensland Press 1982, has been translated into Malay-Indonesian: Ekologi Parasit Laut, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur.
Selected papers and book chapters
1966 Sense receptors of Multicotyle purvisi Dawes (Trematoda, Aspidobothria). Nature, 211, 820–822.
1972 The Aspidogastrea, especially Multicotyle purvisi Dawes, 1941. Advances in Parasitology, 10, 77–151.
1975 Fine structure of the Monogenea, especially Polystomoides. Advances in Parasitology, 13, 1–33.
1976 Species diversity of parasites on the Great Barrier Reef. Zeitschrift für Parasitenkunde, 50, 93–94.
1977 A non-competitive mechanism responsible for restricting niches. Zoologischer Anzeiger, 199, 164–172
1978 Latitudinal differences in species diversity and their causes. I. A review of the hypotheses explaining the gradients. Biologisches Zentralblatt, 97, 393–403.
1978 Latitudinal gradients in species diversity and their causes. II. Marine parasitological evidence for a time hypothesis. Biologisches Zentralblatt, 97, 405–418.
1979 A critical evaluation of intrinsic and extrinsic factors responsible for niche restriction in parasites. American Naturalist, 114, 648–671.
1984 Helminth Diseases of Marine Fishes. In Diseases of Marine Animals, vol. IV (ed. O Kinne.). Biol. Anst. Helgoland, 193–320, 435–501.
1991 Intra- and interspecific interactions in low density populations in resource-rich habitats. Oikos, 60, 91–104.
1992 Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: the search for the primary cause. Oikos, 65, 514–527.
1993 with M Heap and D Heap. Rapoport's rule does not apply to marine teleosts and cannot explain latitudinal gradients in species richness. American Naturalist, 142, 1–16.
1994 The minor groups of parasitic Platyhelminthes. Advances in Parasitology, 33, 145–234.
1994 Niche restriction in parasites: proximate and ultimate causes. Parasitology, 109, S69-S84.
1997 The origins of parasitism in the Platyhelminthes: a summary interpreted on the basis of recent literature. International Journal for Parasitology, 27, 739–746.
1998 with M Heap. Latitudinal differences in species and community richness and in community structure of metazoan endo- and ectoparasites of marine teleost fish. International Journal for Parasitology, 28, 461–474.
1999 with D T J Littlewood and K A Clough. The interrelationships of all major groups of Platyhelminthes – phylogenetic evidence from morphology and molecules. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 66, 75–114.
1999 with D T J Littlewood, R A Bray and E A Herniou. Phylogeny of the Platyhelminthes and the evolution of parasitism. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 68, 257–287.
1999 with I D Whittington and L A Chisholm. The larvae of Monogenea (Platyhelminthes). Advances in Parasitology, 44, 139–232.
2001 The Aspidogastrea, an archaic group of Platyhelminthes. In: Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes, pp. 159–167. (eds. D T J Littlewood and R A Bray). Taylor & Francis, London and New York.
2001 Protonephridia as phylogenetic characters. In: Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes, pp. 203–216. (eds. D T J Littlewood and R A Bray). Taylor & Francis., London and New York.
2002 with N J Gotelli. Co-occurrence of ectoparasites of marine fishes: null model analysis. Ecology Letters, 5, 86–94.
2002 Ecology and biogeography of marine parasites. Advances in Marine Biology, 43, 1–86.
2006 with D Stauffer. Simulation of geographical trends in Chowdhury ecosystem model. Advances in Complex Systems 8, 451–464.
2008 with P P Rohde. How to measure host specificity. Vie et Milieu (Life and Environment) 58, 121–124.
2010 Marine parasite diversity and environmental gradients. In: S Morand and B Krasnov (eds.). The Biogeography of Host-Parasite Interactions. Oxford University Press, pp. 73–88.
References
^"Rohde, Klaus - Person". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
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