Christian Vaupell


Christian Theodor Vaupell was a Danish botanist and forester. He was a student of Japetus Steenstrup and a teacher of botany at the University of Copenhagen to the young Eugen Warming.
Vaupell did macrofossil analysis of peat deposits and showed that in the Holocene development of temperate forest communities in Denmark, Betula was the chief early pioneer, followed by Pinus and Quercus and finally Fagus, which dominates today. These investigations pioneered the study of ecological succession. Besides studies of Holocene vegetation change and plant successions, Vaupell did pioneering investigations of palaeoecology as well as microscopy of plant anatomy and vegetative reproduction.

Selected works

Vaupell, C. De nordsjællandske Skovmoser. En botanisk-mikroskopisk Undersøgelse af de Plantedele, som danne Tørven og af de Levninger af Fortidens Skove, der ere bevarede i nogle nordsjællandske Skovmoser.
Vaupell, C. Bøgens Indvandring i de Danske Skove. C. A. Reitzels Bo og Arvinger, Kjøbenhavn, 63 pp.
Vaupell, C. De l’invasion du hêtre dans les forèts du Danemark. Annales des Sciences Naturelles Bot., 4. Series, 7, 55–86.
Vaupell, C. De danske Skove. P. G. Philipsens Forlag, Kjøbenhavn, 309 pp. Foreword by G. Ploug.