@article{PuigSamperRebok2010, author = {Puig-Samper, Miguel {\´A}ngel and Rebok, Sandra}, title = {Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt}, series = {Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {XI}, journal = {Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {21}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51765}, pages = {55 -- 64}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Die besondere Beziehung zwischen Humboldt und Darwin, zwei der bedeutendsten Pers{\"o}nlichkeiten in der Welt der Naturwissenschaften und der Biologie des 19. Jahrhunderts, wird detailliert auf den verschiedenen Ebenen ihres Kontaktes analysiert, sowohl was das real stattgefundene pers{\"o}nliche Treffen betrifft, als auch hinsichtlich ihrer Korrespondenz und der Koinzidenz von Ideen. Dieser wechselseitige Blick zeigt uns wie sich die beiden Gelehrten gegenseitig wahrnahmen, ob sie wirklich versuchten, mit dem Paradigma ihrer bedeutenden Vorg{\"a}nger zu brechen, oder ob sie lediglich schrittweise das bereits erlangte Wissen erweiterten, bis es durch die Erstellung einer genialen Idee zu einem Bruch des bisherigen Wissens kommt. Bekannt ist die wiederholte Referenz von Darwin auf die Werke Humboldts, insbesondere auf die Tageb{\"u}cher des deutschen Naturwissenschaftler und seine Art der Beschreibung der amerikanischen Natur in ihrer ganzen Reichhaltigkeit. Weniger bekannt hingegen sind andere Verweise in seiner Autobiografie, sowie die wissenschaftliche Verwendung des Humboldtschen Werkes oder die Zitate in seiner Korrespondenz, die in diesem Beitrag aufgezeigt werden. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus wird die Verwendung der fr{\"u}hen Schriften von Darwin durch Humboldt in einigen seiner Publikationen, vor allem im Kosmos, erw{\"a}hnt.}, language = {en} } @article{Kroeger2013, author = {Kr{\"o}ger, Bj{\"o}rn}, title = {Remarks on a scene, depicting the primeval world}, series = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {XIV}, journal = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {27}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1617-5239}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-69848}, pages = {7 -- 35}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The Prussian geologist Leopold von Buch was a lifelong friend of Alexander von Humboldt and had a significant influence on Humboldt's geological ideas. In a talk, held in Berlin in 1831, which is published here for the first time, von Buch presented the Duria Antiquior of 1830 by the English geologist Henry De La Beche. The Duria Antiquior is widely regarded as the earliest depiction of a scene of prehistoric life from deep time. The print raised new questions about the processes of geohistorical change. The talk reveals that Leopold von Buch was a true scientist of the Romantic Age. His descriptions of geohistorical organismic transformations are taken from pictorial examples of organismic transformation from the classical literature. The talk also illustrates how influential English geologists were for geo-historical reconstructions in Germany.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lenz2016, author = {Lenz, Josefine}, title = {Thermokarst dynamics in central-eastern Beringia}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-101364}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XII, 128, A-47}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Widespread landscape changes are presently observed in the Arctic and are most likely to accelerate in the future, in particular in permafrost regions which are sensitive to climate warming. To assess current and future developments, it is crucial to understand past environmental dynamics in these landscapes. Causes and interactions of environmental variability can hardly be resolved by instrumental records covering modern time scales. However, long-term environmental variability is recorded in paleoenvironmental archives. Lake sediments are important archives that allow reconstruction of local limnogeological processes as well as past environmental changes driven directly or indirectly by climate dynamics. This study aims at reconstructing Late Quaternary permafrost and thermokarst dynamics in central-eastern Beringia, the terrestrial land mass connecting Eurasia and North America during glacial sea-level low stands. In order to investigate development, processes and influence of thermokarst dynamics, several sediment cores from extant lakes and drained lake basins were analyzed to answer the following research questions: 1. When did permafrost degradation and thermokarst lake development take place and what were enhancing and inhibiting environmental factors? 2. What are the dominant processes during thermokarst lake development and how are they reflected in proxy records? 3. How did, and still do, thermokarst dynamics contribute to the inventory and properties of organic matter in sediments and the carbon cycle? Methods applied in this study are based upon a multi-proxy approach combining sedimentological, geochemical, geochronological, and micropaleontological analyses, as well as analyses of stable isotopes and hydrochemistry of pore-water and ice. Modern field observations of water quality and basin morphometrics complete the environmental investigations. The investigated sediment cores reveal permafrost degradation and thermokarst dynamics on different time scales. The analysis of a sediment core from GG basin on the northern Seward Peninsula (Alaska) shows prevalent terrestrial accumulation of yedoma throughout the Early to Mid Wisconsin with intermediate wet conditions at around 44.5 to 41.5 ka BP. This first wetland development was terminated by the accumulation of a 1-meter-thick airfall tephra most likely originating from the South Killeak Maar eruption at 42 ka BP. A depositional hiatus between 22.5 and 0.23 ka BP may indicate thermokarst lake formation in the surrounding of the site which forms a yedoma upland till today. The thermokarst lake forming GG basin initiated 230 ± 30 cal a BP and drained in Spring 2005 AD. Four years after drainage the lake talik was still unfrozen below 268 cm depth. A permafrost core from Mama Rhonda basin on the northern Seward Peninsula preserved a full lacustrine record including several lake phases. The first lake generation developed at 11.8 cal ka BP during the Lateglacial-Early Holocene transition; its old basin (Grandma Rhonda) is still partially preserved at the southern margin of the study basin. Around 9.0 cal ka BP a shallow and more dynamic thermokarst lake developed with actively eroding shorelines and potentially intermediate shallow water or wetland phases (Mama Rhonda). Mama Rhonda lake drainage at 1.1 cal ka BP was followed by gradual accumulation of terrestrial peat and top-down refreezing of the lake talik. A significant lower organic carbon content was measured in Grandma Rhonda deposits (mean TOC of 2.5 wt\%) than in Mama Rhonda deposits (mean TOC of 7.9 wt\%) highlighting the impact of thermokarst dynamics on biogeochemical cycling in different lake generations by thawing and mobilization of organic carbon into the lake system. Proximal and distal sediment cores from Peatball Lake on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska revealed young thermokarst dynamics since about 1,400 years along a depositional gradient based on reconstructions from shoreline expansion rates and absolute dating results. After its initiation as a remnant pond of a previous drained lake basin, a rapidly deepening lake with increasing oxygenation of the water column is evident from laminated sediments, and higher Fe/Ti and Fe/S ratios in the sediment. The sediment record archived characterizing shifts in depositional regimes and sediment sources from upland deposits and re-deposited sediments from drained thaw lake basins depending on the gradually changing shoreline configuration. These changes are evident from alternating organic inputs into the lake system which highlights the potential for thermokarst lakes to recycle old carbon from degrading permafrost deposits of its catchment. The lake sediment record from Herschel Island in the Yukon (Canada) covers the full Holocene period. After its initiation as a thermokarst lake at 11.7 cal ka BP and intense thermokarst activity until 10.0 cal ka BP, the steady sedimentation was interrupted by a depositional hiatus at 1.6 cal ka BP which likely resulted from lake drainage or allochthonous slumping due to collapsing shore lines. The specific setting of the lake on a push moraine composed of marine deposits is reflected in the sedimentary record. Freshening of the maturing lake is indicated by decreasing electrical conductivity in pore-water. Alternation of marine to freshwater ostracods and foraminifera confirms decreasing salinity as well but also reflects episodical re-deposition of allochthonous marine sediments. Based on permafrost and lacustrine sediment records, this thesis shows examples of the Late Quaternary evolution of typical Arctic permafrost landscapes in central-eastern Beringia and the complex interaction of local disturbance processes, regional environmental dynamics and global climate patterns. This study confirms that thermokarst lakes are important agents of organic matter recycling in complex and continuously changing landscapes.}, language = {en} } @article{Kraft2012, author = {Kraft, Tobias}, title = {Textual Differences in Alexander von Humboldt's Essai politique sur l'{\^i}le de Cuba}, series = {Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {XIII}, journal = {Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {24}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-61435}, pages = {75 -- 85}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Die vorliegende Studie basiert auf einem Editionsbericht, der 2009 im Rahmen der Konferenz »Alexander von Humboldt and the Hemisphere« an der Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) vorgestellt wurde. Die f{\"u}r diese Publikation weiter entwickelte Untersuchung verdeutlicht die Textgenese von Humboldts Essai politique sur l'{\^i}le de Cuba auf der Basis eines Textvergleichs zwischen allen drei "Originalquellen" des Texts. Der hier in seinen Ergebnissen vorgestellte Textvergleich ist Teil des Editionsprojektes »Humboldt in English« (HiE), bei dem sich ein US-deutsches Editorenteam seit 2007 zum Ziel gesetzt haben, kritische Neu{\"u}bersetzungen von drei wichtigen Schriften aus Humboldts »Opus Americanum« anzufertigen (s.a. Fußnote). Der Textvergleich des Essai politique sur l'{\^i}le de Cuba bildete die Textgrundlage f{\"u}r den ersten Band der HiE-Reihe, den 2011 bei Chicago University Press erschienenen The Political Essay on the Island of Cuba (hg. von Vera M. Kutzinski und Ottmar Ette).}, language = {en} } @article{Zemtsov2005, author = {Zemtsov, Alexander}, title = {Alexander von Humboldt's ideas on volcanism and their influence on Russian scientists}, volume = {VI}, number = {11}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1617-5239}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-35335}, pages = {31 -- 37}, year = {2005}, abstract = {The article provides historical background for Alexander von Humboldt's expedition into Russia in 1829. It includes information on Humboldt's works and publications in Russia over the course of his lifetime, as well as an explanation of the Russian scientific community's response to those works. Humboldt's ideas on the existence of an active volcano in Central Asia attracted the attention of two prominent Russian geographers, P. Semenov and P. Kropotkin, whose views on the nature of volcanism were quite different. P. Semenov personally met Humboldt in Berlin. P. Kropotkin made one of the most important geological discoveries of the 19th Century: he found the fresh volcanic cones near Lake Baikal. Soon after Humboldt's Russian expedition, and partly as a result of it, an important mineral was found in the Ilmen mountains - samarskite, which later gave its name to the chemical element Samarium, developed in 1879. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the Russian scientist V. Vernadskiy pointed out that samarskite was the first uranium-rich mineral found in Russia.}, language = {en} } @article{Rupke2006, author = {Rupke, Nicolaas A.}, title = {A metabiography of Alexander von Humboldt}, volume = {VII}, number = {12}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1617-5239}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-35438}, pages = {69 -- 72}, year = {2006}, abstract = {The author's recently published monograph on Alexander von Humboldt[1] describes the multiple images of this great cultural icon. The book is a metabiographical study that shows how from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day Humboldt has served as a nucleus of crystallisation for a variety of successive socio-political ideologies, each producing its own distinctive representation of him. The historiographical implications of this biographical diversity are profound and support current attempts to understand historical scholarship in terms of memory cultures.}, language = {en} } @article{Lindquist2004, author = {Lindquist, Jason H.}, title = {"Under the influence of an exotic nature...national remembrances are insensibly effaced"}, series = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {V}, journal = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {9}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-35109}, pages = {44 -- 59}, year = {2004}, abstract = {My essay attends to a number of passages in Alexander von Humboldt's Personal Narrative in which the Prussian explorer expresses anxiety about the apparent dangers posed by the overwhelmingly productive tropical landscapes he observes. In these passages, the excesses of an "exotic nature" threaten European identity and modes of civilization—and they trouble the accuracy of Humboldt's own observational project. I also explore Humboldt's related worry that South American vegetable (and visual) overload will exert a destabilizing effect on his aesthetic sensibility, disrupting his ability to represent the "New Continent" accurately in writing. Finally, I sketch the influence of Humboldt's representations of tropical excess on nineteenth-century British cultural thought and literary practice. Studying the instabilities experienced by Personal Narrative's expatriates and colonists promises to draw out important tensions latent in Humboldt's treatment of tropical landscape and to illuminate broader epistemological and aesthetic shifts being worked out during the period.}, language = {en} } @article{Weigl2003, author = {Weigl, Engelhard}, title = {Acclimatization}, series = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {IV}, journal = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {7}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-34991}, pages = {51 -- 62}, year = {2003}, abstract = {Together with their wives Otto and Richard Schomburgk arrived in Port Adelaide (South Australia) on August 16th 1849. The essay looks at how these two brothers, who had received their scientific training and promotion in the circle surrounding Alexander von Humboldt, reacted to the unfamiliar conditions in the young British colony. Some indication will be given as to the differences between the Schomburgk brothers treatment of the natural resources of the new colony and that of the English colonists of the time.}, language = {en} } @article{Baron2005, author = {Baron, Frank}, title = {From Alexander von Humboldt to Frederic Edwin Church}, series = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {VI}, journal = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {10}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1617-5239}, doi = {10.18443/56}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-35194}, pages = {7 -- 20}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Stephen Jay Gould wrote recently that "when Church began to paint his great canvases, Alexander von Humboldt may well have been the world's most famous and influential intellectual." Humboldt's influence in the case of the landscape artist Church is especially interesting. If we examine the precise relationship between the German explorer and his American admirer, we gain an insight into how Humboldt transformed Church's life and signaled a new phase in the career of the artist. Church retraced Humboldt's travels in Ecuador and in Mexico. If we compare the texts available to Church and the comparison of Church's paintings and the texts and images of Humboldt's works we can arrive at new perspectives on Humboldt's extraordinary influence on American landscape painting in the nineteenth century.}, language = {en} } @article{Clark2005, author = {Clark, Rex}, title = {Alexander von Humboldt's images of landscape and the 'Chaos of the Poets'}, series = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {VI}, journal = {HIN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {10}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1617-5239}, doi = {10.18443/57}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-35209}, pages = {21 -- 29}, year = {2005}, abstract = {Alexander von Humboldt's descriptions of volcanic mountains in his travel journals (Reise auf dem R{\´i}o Magdalena, durch die Anden und Mexico) show both his reliance on and impatience with literary conventions and travel narratives. Using Goethe's Italienische Reise and B{\"u}rger's M{\"u}nchhausen as points of comparison for literary treatments of the volcano ascent, Humboldt's process of writing is examined. Humboldt shows the failure of the existing discourse and begins to experiment with narratives which fragment and recombine personal and historical modes of writing with, in this case, images from new technical inventions which visualize landscape according to fundamental scientific principles. While the inclusion of scientific prose is relevant, Humboldt's link to modernity is based on experimental narrative techniques which draw upon changing sets of discourse practices to describe complex realities.}, language = {en} }