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Alfred Clarence Redfield (November 15, 1890 – March 17, 1983) was an Americanoceanographer known for having discovered the Redfield ratio, which describes the ratio between nutrients in plankton and ocean water.[1] He was a professor of physiology at Harvard University and one of the original staff of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution upon its founding in 1930.[2]
Redfield was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania.[2] The family often spent summers on Cape Cod, where the young Redfield became fascinated with natural history.[3]
After attending Haverford College for one year (1909-1910), he entered Harvard University, where he received his bachelor of science degree in 1913 and Ph.D. in 1917.[2][3] He was assistant professor of physiology at the University of Toronto, and joined the Harvard faculty in 1921, becoming a full professor in 1931.[2] He was chairman of the biology department from 1935-1938, and retired in 1956 as professor emeritus.[2][3]
During the years 1930 to 1970, Redfield was intimately involved with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, known familiarly then as "The Oceanographic" and today as "WHOI." Like the other WHOI scientists, he spent the summers at "The Oceanographic" and the academic year teaching at Harvard. At WHOI, he was named senior biologist from 1930 to 1942, associate director between 1942 and 1957, senior oceanographer emeritus in 1957, and honorary trustee in 1963.[4]
He was named president of the Ecological Society of America in 1946,[3] and was president of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences from 1962 to 1965.[2] He was also locally involved in the Woods Hole Public Library and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce.[3]
Redfield died at age 92 in March 1983, leaving his wife, three children, ten grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.[2]
彼の研究は、ジェームズ・ラブロックが「生物とその環境は単一の自己調節システムとして進化する」というガイア仮説を提唱する際に利用された。 [ 5 ] 1918年から1924年にかけて、レッドフィールドはエリザベス・M・ブライトと放射線とネレイスの影響に関する研究に取り組んだ。この共同研究で、チームは12本の論文を発表した。[ 6 ]
博士課程の研究において、彼はツノヒキガエルの皮膚の色素沈着のメカニズムを研究し、アドレナリンが皮膚の色素沈着の主要な制御因子であることを突き止めた。その後、彼はX線とラジウム放射線が生理作用に及ぼす影響を研究した。
卒業後、彼は海洋生物学の研究に進みました。彼は、多くの無脊椎動物の血液色素であり、酸素と結合するヘモシアニンを研究し、その生理学的挙動を特徴づけました。[ 7 ]
1930年代、レッドフィールドは最も重要な発見をした。リン、窒素、炭素原子の化学成分の原子比が、外洋におけるそれらの相対的な割合と同一であることを発見したのだ。この考えは、海における炭素のライフサイクルのいくつかの特徴を説明するために用いられた。[ 3 ]この比率はレッドフィールド比として知られるようになり、この比率が成り立つ海は「レッドフィールド海」と呼ばれることもある。[ 3 ]この発見は、レッドフィールドがよく知られるようになった格言につながった。「海そのものを理解せずに、海の生命を理解することはできない。」[ 3 ]
第二次世界大戦中、「The Oceanographic」のスタッフは30倍に増え、軍事研究が最優先事項となった。[ 3 ] レッドフィールドはケンブリッジからウッズホールに常駐し、WHOIの副所長に任命された（ただし、ハーバード大学の教授職は維持した）。[ 3 ]この頃、レッドフィールドはアリン・ヴァインと共に、温度勾配が潜水艦の探知と追跡におけるソナーの精度にどのように影響するかを研究することに重点を置いていた。レッドフィールドとヴァインは、潜水艦が海水の温度勾配を利用して敵のソナーによる探知を回避できることを実証した。[ 3 ]
Late in life, Redfield turned to studying tides in coastal waters, and the ecology of salt marshes along the U.S. east coast, publishing his last scientific paper “The Tides of the Waters of New England and New York” at age 89.[3]
ARedfield came from a notable scientific family. His great-grandfather was pioneering amateur meteorologist William Charles Redfield (1789 – 1857), the first president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[3] His grandfather was a botanist in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia; his father Robert Redfield was a naturalist photographer, whose works are held by Library Company of Philadelphia and Yale University.[3]
His son Alfred G. Redfield (d. 2019) was professor of physics and biochemistry at Brandeis University and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[8][3] His daughter Elizabeth R. Marsh (died 2009) was said to have been "influential in founding" Stockton University in New Jersey, where she taught environmental studies, natural sciences, and mathematics.[9]
Redfield's married his first wife Elizabeth Pratt in 1913.[3] She died in the 1918 flu pandemic. He married Martha Putnam in 1922; they had three children. Martha outlived him by only a few months.[3]
