Tansley, Sir Arthur George
Tansley, Sir Arthur George (1871–1955) A British ecologist and conservationist who emphasized ecology as an ‘approach to botany through the direct study of plants in their natural conditions’ (Practical Plant Ecology, 1923), and the fact that, since plants exist in communities, the ecologist should be concerned with the structure of communities, or ‘plant sociology’. This view became central to most British and American ecological theory. Tansley was a lecturer at the University of Cambridge (1907–23), where much of his ecological work was done, and professor of botany at the University of Oxford (1927–37). He was instrumental in founding the British Ecological Society (1913) and was its first president. His many books include The British Islands and Their Vegetation (1939) and Britain's Green Mantle (1949). See also CLEMENTS, FREDERIC EDWARD.
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Tansley, Sir Arthur George