American ecologist
Raymond Laurel Lindeman (July 24, 1915 – June 29, 1942)[1][2] was an ecologist whose graduate research is credited with being a seminal study in the field of ecosystem ecology, specifically on the topic of trophic dynamics.
Graduate research work
Lindeman completed his PhD at the University of Minnesota with his thesis work being concerned with the history and ecological dynamics of Cedar Bog Lake,[3] which is located in the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve in central Minnesota.
While a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University with noted limnologist G. Evelyn Hutchinson, Lindeman submitted a chapter of his thesis for publication’s . His manuscript was initially rejected as being too generalized but was published after Hutchinson and others were able to convince the editor of the paper's merits.[4] The publication appeared in the journal Ecology and establishes the ten percent law whereby only 10% of the energy consumed at one trophic level is transferred to higher trophic levels.[5] Having suffered from chronic gastro-intestinal and liver inflammation, Lindeman died in 1942 at the age of 26, probably from hepatitis.[6]
Legacy
An annual award in Lindeman's honor is given by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography to the outstanding paper written that year by a young aquatic scientist.[7] Lindeman is also honored today with a lecture series in his name in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, as well as an informative plaque on the same University's Wall of Discovery.
