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The Homer L. Shantz Collections, 1904 to 1958: A Botanist in Africa and the Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Kathleen McConnell*
Affiliation:
Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology, Emil W. Haury Bldg, Rm 316, P.O. Box 210030, Tucson, AZ 85722-0414
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Extract

This large collection is important to the history of science. Homer L. Shantz was one of the pioneers of environmental studies of vegetation, soils and available moisture over large regions. He studied the effects of erosion, increased salinity and alkalinity of soils and the damage that could be caused by introduced vegetation. His work is at the foundation of the environmental ‘engineering’ efforts of the 1960s and later.

Homer L. Shantz was born in Michigan in 1876. He was educated at Colorado College and received a doctorate at the University of Nebraska in 1905 where he first began environmental surveys from the Botany Department. He was then employed by the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Plant Industry, during the first decades of the 1900's, where he worked for the Land Classification Board.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © African Research & Documentation 2003

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References

Hastings, James Rodney & Turner, Raymond M. The changing mile: an ecological study of vegetation change with time in the lower mile of an arid and semi-arid region. Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona Press, 1966.Google Scholar
Phillips, Walter S. Photographic documentation: vegetational changes in Northern Great Plains; from H.L. Shantz’ records and negatives. Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona Press, 1963. (University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Report 214)Google Scholar
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Shantz, H.L. & Marbut, C.F. The vegetation and soils of Africa. New York, National Research Council and the American Geographical Society, 1923. (AGS research series, 13)Google Scholar
Shantz, H.L. & Turner, B.L. Photographic documentation of vegetation changes in Africa over a third of a century; undertaken as a joint project between the College of Agriculture at the University of Arizona and the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy, etc. Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona College of Agriculture, August 1958. (University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Report 169)Google Scholar
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