Bog Men: Alfred P. Dachnowski and George B. Rigg

Abstract

Alfred P. Dachnowski and George B. Rigg were the foremost peatland scientists in the United States during the first half of the 20th century. Although trained as a botanist, Alfred Dachnowski (1875–1949) became an expert on peat soils, including their development, classification, and chemical characteristics. His early research focused on “bog toxins” and how they affected plant growth. After being forced to resign from Ohio State University, he worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the remainder of his professional career. Dachnowski developed several peat soil classifications and published the first comprehensive account of peat deposits in the United States. George B. Rigg (1872-1961), who also was trained as a botanist, spent his entire professional career at the University of Washington. He became an authority on the ecology, development, and distribution of Sphagnum peat bogs and published two major monographs. Early in his career, he also wrote a review on the prevalent theory of “physiological drought” as the cause of the xeromorphic characteristics of some bog plants. However, most of his research focused on bog development (stratigraphy) and how the chemical and physical (air and soil temperature) environment affected the distribution of bog plants.