Alfred Gabriel Nathorst

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Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (November 7, 1850 – January 20, 1921) was a Swedish Arctic explorer, geologist and palaeobotanist. Nathorst was born in Väderbrunn outside Nyköping^[1] and died in Stockholm.

Nathorst’s interest in geology was awoken by Charles Lyell’s ‘’Principles of Geology‘’ and, at the age of 21, Nathorst visited Lyell in England in 1872^[2].

Nathorst was employed at the Geological Survey of Sweden 1873-84. He was then appointed professor, by royal decree of the 5th of December 1884, and was simultaneously made curator of the new “Department of Archegoniates and Fossil Plants" at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. He remained on the post until his retirement in 1917.

Nathorst visited Spitsbergen in 1870 and lead an expedition to Bjørnøya and Svalbard including the isolated Kong Karls Land in 1898. The following year (1899), Nathorst lead an expedition to Greenland. This second expedition had as the dual purpose of geographical mapping and of searching for survivors of S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897. The Andreé expedition was not found, however. The two expeditions are described in two volumes "Två somrar i Norra Ishavet" (in Swedish).

Starting with macrofossil deposited in glacial clay found in Scania in 1871, Nathorst investigated postglacial development in flora and vegetation. He also researched on plant remains from older geological eras, such as palaeozoic and mesozoic from the Arctic and tertiary from Japan. These investigations made himan internationally acknowledged authority on palaeobotany. palaebotanical.

Nathorst had a scientific dispute with Eugen Warming over the history of the flora of Greenland. Warming adhered to the hypothesis that part of the flora had survived the last glaciation^[3] - the nunatak hypothesis, while Nathorst advocated the view that the entire flora had immigrated anew after the glaciation^[4][5] - the tabula rasa hypothesis. Disputes with similar antitheses have later been repeated for other areas by other combatants.

A number of plant, animal and fungal species have been named to his honour, e.g. Saxifraga nathorstii (Dusén) Hayek (East Greenland saxifrage) and a suite of fossil plant species, Williamsonia nathorstii Carruthers (a fossil dragonfly) and Laestadites nathorstii Mesch. (a fossil fungus).

Nathorst Land in East Central Greenland is named after him.

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