Gaston Bonnier

Who was Gaston Bonnier?

Gaston Eugène Marie Bonnier was a French botanist and plant ecologist. Bonnier first studied at École Normale Supérieure in Paris from 1873 to 1876. Together with Charles Flahault, he studied at Uppsala University in 1878. They published two articles about their impressions:

Observations sur la flore cryptogamique de la Scandinavie

Sur la distribution des végétaux dans la region moyenne de la presqu’ile Scandinave

He became assistant professor, later full professor, of botany at Sorbonne in 1887 and, in addition, he founded a Plant Biological Laboratory in Fontainebleau in 1889. The same year, he co-founded the scientific journal Revue Générale de Botanique, which he edited until 1922. He was an early exponent of experimental plant ecology. He transplanted alpine plants between the Alps and Pyrenees and the research garden in Fontainebleau. The results were published in:

Cultures expérimentales dans les Alpes et les Pyrénées. Revue Générale de Botanique 2: 513–546.

Les plantes arctiques comparées aux mêmes espèces des Alpes et des Pyrénées.

Nouvelles observations sur les cultures expérimentales à diverses altitudes et cultures par semis. Revue Générale de Botanique 22: 305–326.