Obituary: Bob McDowall (September 1939 ‐ February 2011): a key contributor to our understanding of Southern Hemisphere biogeography and the significance of marine dispersal

Abstract

ISSN 1948‐6596 profiles obituary Bob McDowall (September 1939 ‐ February 2011): a key contributor to our understanding of Southern Hemisphere biogeography and the sig‐ nificance of marine dispersal It is with great sadness that I report the loss of Dr Robert (“Bob”) Montgomery McDowall, on Febru‐ ary 19 th , 2011. Bob was a key figure in the study of Southern Hemisphere biogeography and marine dispersal. After a childhood of fishing and freshwater activities with his parents, both of whom were also scientists, Bob completed a MSc on the ecol‐ ogy of redfin bully (Gobiomorphus huttoni) at Vic‐ toria University, Wellington, in 1962. Bob subse‐ quently joined the Fisheries Laboratory of the New Zealand Marine Department in 1963, study‐ ing Galaxias maculatus, the dominant contributor to the New Zealand whitebait fishery, and a spe‐ cies that probably ignited his interest in biogeog‐ raphy, much as its distribution had earlier in‐ trigued the likes of Charles Darwin. Bob was soon awarded a National Research Fellowship to study overseas, and started a PhD on galaxiid systemat‐ ics at Harvard University in 1965, in an environ‐ ment that included some of the foremost evolu‐ tionary biologists (Mayr) and biogeographers (Darlington) of the time. Bob completed his PhD in 3 years, a timeframe to be much admired even in this age, which enabled him to return to New Zea‐ land via Chile—for galaxiid collections, of course! Back in New Zealand, Bob became New Zealand’s foremost freshwater fisheries scientist, outlasting the names of several Government departments, prior to “retiring” from the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Research (NIWA) in March 2000. However, like many a great scientist, retire‐ ment freed Bob from administrative burdens such that he was able to focus entirely on research. While predominantly employed as a fisher‐ ies biologist, Bob somehow managed to regularly publish biogeographic research. In this context, Bob focussed on the Southern Hemisphere “Gondwanan” distribution of galaxiid fishes, and also the influence of diadromy (migration be‐ tween the ocean and freshwaters) on species dis‐ tributions. In the period following the acceptance The late Bob McDowall in December 2010. Picture by Ainslie McDowall of plate tectonics, Bob was a dominant protago‐ nist for the retention of oceanic dispersal as a valid biogeographic hypothesis (McDowall 1978), particularly in taxa such as his diadromous Galax‐ ias maculatus, where conspecific populations broadly occupy temperate lowland catchments throughout the Southern Hemisphere, and larvae have been recorded 100’s of km out to sea (McDowall et al. 1975). Bob argued his point against several notable opponents within the dis‐ cipline: Nelson, Rosen, Platnick, Croizat. Much subsequent research has supported Bob’s position on oceanic dispersal, with many examples from terrestrial, freshwater, and nearshore marine fau‐ nas and floras (McDowall 2002; Sanmartin and Ronquist 2004; de Queiroz 2005). But while Bob could easily be considered a strong proponent of oceanic dispersal, it perhaps best reflects his at‐ tention to balanced approaches of scientific in‐ quiry, and in recent correspondence he was keen to highlight that Gondwanan vicariance should not be forgotten (fearing that the pendulum was now swinging too far the other way). Bob was a frenetic publisher, with (at last count) 267 scientific papers and 232 reports and popular articles. His papers spanned a variety of journals, including those not immediately within frontiers of biogeography 3.1, 2011 — © 2011 the authors; journal compilation © 2011 The International Biogeography Society