Otto Porsch and the scientific goals and results of the Austrian Costa Rica expedition 1930

Author(s)

Anton Weber

Abstract

As a complement to the historical paper of DÍAZ (this volume), a brief survey is given of the life and career of Otto

Porsch (1875-1959) and the scientific goals and results of the Austrian Costa Rica Expedition (1930) he organised and directed.

Porsch had broad scientific interests and was an eminent expert and pioneer in the field of pollination biology. Little was known

at his time on the pollination of tropical plants by birds, bats and other vertebrates. Based on experiences from an expedition to

Java (1913-1914), Porsch wanted to expand his studies on bird pollination to the neotropics. He chose Costa Rica as a destination

because of its richness in hummingbirds. Here, he conducted extensive field studies and was able to confirm and deepen many

of his former predictions. PORSCH was probably the first to fully realise the significance of hummingbirds for the evolutionary differentiation

of the neotropical flora. Moreover, he was the first to prove definitively the existence of bat-pollinated flowers. In

addition to various other anthecological studies, Porsch carried out valuable vegetation studies, publishing them in volume 23/4-

5 of KARSTEN & SCHENCK¿s ¿Vegetationsbilder¿. To document the wide range of Porsch¿s interests and research fields, a list of his

papers is published here for the first time.

Organisation(s)

Pages

667-674

No. of pages

Publication date

2008

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

106008 Botany

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