Brian John Coppins

{{short description|British botanist and lichenologist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Brian J. Coppins | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = 1949 | birth_place = [[Pembury]], [[Kent]], UK | death_date = | death_place = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = [[Lichenology]] | workplaces = [[Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh]] | thesis_title = A taxonomic study of the lichen genus Micarea in Europe | thesis_url = | thesis_year = 1982<ref name=Acharius/> | alma_mater = [[University of Hull]] [[King's College London]] [[University College London]] [[Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys]] | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | author_abbrev_bot = Coppins | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = [[Acharius Medal]] (2010)<ref name=Acharius>{{cite web |author-link=Peter Crittenden |author=Crittenden, Peter|title=Brian J. Coppins, Acharius Medallists|website=International Association for Lichenology (lichenology.org)|url=http://www.lichenology.org/Awards/Acharius_Coppins.html}}</ref> [[Linnean Medal]] (2011) | signature =  | signature_alt = | footnotes = | spouse = }} {{Scholia}}

'''Brian John Coppins''' (born 1949) is a botanist and lichenologist, considered a world authority on [[crustose lichen]]s<ref name=Fryday>{{cite journal|last1=Fryday|first1=Alan|last2=Kantvilas|first2=Gintaras|last3=Ellis|first3=Christopher|last4=Crittenden|first4=Peter|title=Brian Coppins – A liber amicorum|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=46|issue=3|year=2014|pages=245–246|issn=0024-2829|doi=10.1017/S0024282914000061|doi-access=free}}</ref> and a leading expert on the genus ''[[Micarea]]''.<ref name=webpage>{{cite web|title=Dr Brian Coppins, Research Associate Lichenology|website=Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh|url=https://www.rbge.org.uk/about-us/organisational-structure/staff/cryptogamic-plants-and-fungi/dr-brian-coppins/}}</ref>

==Education== Coppins' interest in lichens was sparked during a field trip to the Scottish island of Handa while studying at [[Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys|Tunbridge Wells Technical School for Boys]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Lichen Society visits Malham Tarn Field Centre |url=https://www.cravenherald.co.uk/news/countryfile/15280083.british-lichen-society-visits-malham-tarn-field-centre/ |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=Craven Herald |date=13 May 2017}}</ref> His early enthusiasm for lichens was notable; as a sixth-former, he and two friends, including Allan Pentecost, organised their own lichen expedition to Ireland, travelling by public transport and using ''The Observer's Book of Lichens'' for identification. Upon their return, they visited the [[British Museum, London]] to seek expert help with identifying their specimens.<ref name="Gilbert 2004"/> While still an undergraduate at the [[University of Hull]], Coppins was the co-author, with D. W. Shimwell, of an important study of lichen dynamics in managed [[heathland]].<ref name=Fryday/><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/3543726|jstor=3543726|title=Cryptogam Complement and Biomass in Dry Calluna Heath of Different Ages|last1=Coppins|first1=B. J.|last2=Shimwell|first2=D. W.|journal=Oikos|year=1971|volume=22|issue=2|pages=204–209}}</ref> After receiving his B.Sc. in 1970,<ref name=rbge>{{cite web|title=Dr Brian Coppins|website=Lichenology Staff, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh|url=https://websites.rbge.org.uk/lichen/staff_profiles/coppins/brian_coppins.html}}</ref> Coppins became a graduate student at [[King's College London]] and studied lichen [[ecophysiology]] under the supervision of [[Francis Rose]] but he changed the focus of his doctoral studies to the taxonomy of ''[[Micarea]]'' species found in Europe.

==Career== In 1974 was appointed as an ascomycete taxonomist in the herbarium of the [[Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh]] (RBGE). He spent his career there, retiring in May 2009. He received his Ph.D. in 1982 from University College London.<ref name=Acharius/> His dissertation, supervised jointly by Francis Rose and [[Peter Wilfred James]], was published in 1983.<ref name=Acharius/> The work was based upon examination of about 3500 lichen collections and involved field work not only in the British Isles but also in Denmark and Sweden.<ref name="Hawksworth2007">{{cite journal|last1=Hawksworth|first1=D. L.|title=Review of ''A Taxonomic Study of the Lichen Genus ''Micarea'' in Europe''. By Brian John Coppins. [Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Bot.) 11(2): 17–214.] London: British Museum (Natural History). 29 09 1983|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=16|issue=2|year=2007|pages=208|issn=0024-2829|doi=10.1017/S0024282984000372}}</ref>

Prior to his appointment at Edinburgh, Coppins made contributions to regional lichen research, particularly to the [[Northumberland]] lichen flora. He was known for his ability to find small, previously overlooked species by carefully examining tree roots and peeling back grass from around boulders. During field surveys, he demonstrated an ability to identify most lichens without laboratory examination. His expertise was such that other lichenologists would gather for informal field meetings when he visited an area, benefiting from his knowledge.<ref name="Gilbert 2004"/>

His field research has been mostly in Scotland but he has also collected lichens in "Borneo, Chile, the Carpathians, Thailand, USA, Norway and Canada".<ref name=Acharius/> He has contributed about 25,000 preserved specimens to the RBGE's herbarium.<ref name=EdinburghNews>{{cite news|title=Double celebration for Sandy and Brian: Brian and Sandy Coppins have been awarded two top accolades for their research and conservation work.|newspaper=Edinburgh News|date=13 December 2016|url=https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/double-celebration-sandy-and-brian-609934}}</ref> His co-collectors include [[Ursula Katherine Duncan]], [[David John Galloway]], [[Peter Wilfred James|Peter W. James]], and [[Francis Rose]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Coppins, Brian John|website=JSTOR Global Plants|url=https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000057437}}</ref> He also collaborated with in field studies on lichen distributions with [[Oliver Gilbert (lichenologist)|Oliver Gilbert]], [[Alan Fryday]] and [[Vince Giavarini]].<ref name="Independent-Obit-2005">{{cite news |title=Oliver Gilbert - obituary |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/oliver-gilbert-491068.html |access-date=1 January 2023 |work=The Independent |date=18 May 2005}}</ref>

Following the retirements of Peter James and [[Jack Laundon]] from the British Museum (Natural History) in the late 1980s, Coppins emerged as a central figure in British lichenology. Since his PhD on the genus ''Micarea'' was published in 1983, he had gradually acquired an international reputation as an expert on small and difficult lichens, with fieldworkers coining the phrase "a Coppins species" for particularly small or taxonomically challenging specimens. He became the primary taxonomic authority consulted by lichenologists throughout Britain, with specimens from around the world sent to him for identification. His speed and accuracy at identifying lichens under the microscope became legendary among colleagues.<ref name="Gilbert 2004"/>

Brian Coppins and his wife [[Sandy M. Coppins|Alexandra "Sandy" M. Coppins]] have worked together for decades, making thousands of lichen surveys.<ref name=EdinburghNews/> After they became partners, they developed a consultancy team willing to survey sites throughout the British Isles. Their complementary skills—Brian focusing on identification work and Sandy handling field notes and report production—made them particularly effective. By the end of 2000, they had produced about 150 reports, many exceeding a hundred pages. Recognising the risk of unpublished surveys becoming lost, they maintained a catalogue of consultancy reports on the British Lichen Society website, termed the 'Grey Literature'.<ref name="Gilbert 2004"/> They have also worked to increase awareness of the importance of lichen communities and to conserve "habitats such as the [[Atlantic hazelwood|Atlantic hazel wood]]s, Scottish native pinewoods, and alpine areas such as [[Ben Lawers]] and the [[Ben Nevis]] range".<ref name=Acharius/> In 2009 they received The Plantlife Award for Contributions to the Conservation of Plant Diversity.<ref name=Fryday/> In 2016 Brian and Sandy Coppins were jointly awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the [[Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]] (RSPB) Scotland and, in addition, the Bob Saville Award from the Wildlife Information Centre in [[Bo'ness]].<ref name=EdinburghNews/>

By the early 2000s, the centre of British lichenology had effectively shifted from London to Scotland, specifically to the [[Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh]] and to the Coppins' house in [[East Linton]], where many lichenologists would gather for discussions about identification and taxonomy. Despite his growing responsibilities and international reputation, Coppins continued to dedicate time to fieldwork, spending more time in the field later in his career than he had previously.<ref name="Gilbert 2004"/>

==Awards and honours== Brian Coppins was the president of the British Lichen Society from 1988 to 1989. He was Senior Editor of the RBGE's ''[[Edinburgh Journal of Botany]]'' from 1984 to 2001 and continues to serve on the editorial boards of ''[[The Lichenologist]]'' (since 1983) and the ''Turkish Journal of Botany'' (since 2001).<ref name=Fryday/><ref name=webpage/>

He was honoured in the naming of the fungal genera ''[[Coppinsia]]'',<ref>{{cite journal |display-authors=6 |last1=Wijayawardene |first1=Nalin |last2=Hyde |first2=Kevin |first3=LKT |last3=Al-Ani |first4=S |last4=Dolatabadi |last5=Stadler |first5=Marc |last6=Haelewaters |first6=Danny |last7=Tsurykau |first7=Andrei |last8=Mesic |first8=Armin |last9=Navathe |first9=Sudhir |last10=Papp |first10=Viktor |last11=Oliveira Fiuza |first11=Patrícia |last12=Vázquez |first12=Víctor |last13=Gautam |first13=Ajay |last14=Becerra |first14=Alejandra G. |last15=Ekanayaka |first15=Anusha |last16=K. C. |first16=Rajeshkumar |last17=Bezerra |first17=Jadson |last18=Matočec |first18=Neven |last19=Maharachchikumbura |first19=Sajeewa |last20=Suetrong |first20=Satinee |year=2020 |title=Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa |journal=Mycosphere |volume=11 |pages=1060–1456 |doi=10.5943/mycosphere/11/1/8 |doi-access=free |hdl=10481/61998 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> ''[[Briancoppinsia]]'',<ref name="Diederich-et-al2012">{{cite journal |last1=Diederich |first1=P. |last2=Lawrey |first2=J.D. |last3=Sikaroodi |first3=M. |last4=van den Boom |first4=P. |last5=Ertz |first5=D. |title=''Briancoppinsia'', a new coelomycetous genus of Arthoniaceae (Arthoniales) for the lichenicolous ''Phoma cytospora'', with a key to this and similar taxa |journal=Fungal Diversity |year=2012 |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |doi=10.1007/s13225-011-0105-1}}</ref> ''[[Brianiopsis]]'',<ref name="Kondratyuk et al. 2022">{{cite journal |last1=Kondratyuk |first1=S.Y. |last2=Lőkös |first2=L. |last3=Kondratiuk |first3=A.S. |last4=Kärnefelt |first4=I. |last5=Thell |first5=A. |last6=Farkas |first6=E. |last7=Hur |first7=J.-S. |title=Contributions to molecular phylogeny of lichens 3. New monophyletic branches of the Trapeliaceae and Xylariaceae |journal=Acta Botanica Hungarica |volume=64 |issue=1-2 |year=2022 |doi=10.1556/034.64.2022.1-2.6 |pages=97–135}}</ref> and ''[[Snippocia]]'',<ref name="Ertz et al. 2018">{{cite journal |last1=Ertz |first1=Damien |last2=Sanderson |first2=Neil |last3=Łubek |first3=Anna |last4=Kukwa |first4=Martin |title=Two new species of Arthoniaceae from old-growth European forests, ''Arthonia thoriana'' and ''Inoderma sorediatum'', and a new genus for ''Schismatomma niveum'' |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=50 |issue=2 |year=2018 |doi=10.1017/S0024282917000688 |pages=161–172}}</ref> and the lichen species ''[[Dictyonema coppinsii]]''.<ref name="Lücking et al. 2014"/>

==Selected publications== * {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0024282980000035|title=Checklist of British Lichen-Forming, Lichenicolous and Allied Fungi|year=1980|last1=Hawksworth|first1=D. L.|author-link=David Leslie Hawksworth|last2=James|first2=P. W.|author-link2=Peter Wilfred James|last3=Coppins|first3=B. J.|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=12|pages=1–115}} 1980 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1080/03746609808684918|title=An introduction to the lichen flora of Khao Yai National Park, Thailand|year=1998|last1=Boonpragob|first1=K.|last2=Homchantara|first2=N.|last3=Coppins|first3=B.J.|last4=McCarthy|first4=P.M.|last5=Wolseley|first5=P.A.|journal=Botanical Journal of Scotland|volume=50|issue=2|pages=209–219}} 1998 * {{cite book|author=Coppins, A. M.|author2=Coppins, B. J.|year=2002|title=Indices of ecological continuity for woodland epiphytic lichen habitats in the British Isles|location=London|publisher=British Lichen Society|url=https://www.britishlichensociety.org.uk/sites/www.britishlichensociety.org.uk/files/about-lichens-downloads/indices-ecological-continuity-woodland-epiphytic-lichens.pdf}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0024282906006207|title=Species richness of lichen functional groups in relation to land use intensity|year=2006|last1=Stofer|first1=Silvia|last2=Bergamini|first2=Ariel|last3=Aragón|first3=Gregorio|last4=Carvalho|first4=Palmira|last5=Coppins|first5=Brian J.|last6=Davey|first6=Simon|last7=Dietrich|first7=Michael|last8=Farkas|first8=Edit|last9=Kärkkäinen|first9=Kati|last10=Keller|first10=Christine|last11=Lökös|first11=László|last12=Lommi|first12=Sampsa|last13=Máguas|first13=Cristina|last14=Mitchell|first14=Ruth|last15=Pinho|first15=Pedro|last16=Rico|first16=Víctor J.|last17=Truscott|first17=Anne-Marie|last18=Wolseley|first18=Patricia A.|last19=Watt|first19=Allan|last20=Scheidegger|first20=Christoph|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=38|issue=4|pages=331–353|s2cid=86057118 |url=https://www.dora.lib4ri.ch/wsl/islandora/object/wsl%3A6032}} 2006 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1366-9516.2006.00310.x|title=19th century woodland structure controls stand-scale epiphyte diversity in present-day Scotland|year=2007|last1=Ellis|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Coppins|first2=Brian J.|journal=Diversity and Distributions|volume=13|pages=84–91|doi-access=free}} 2007 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1006/lich.2002.0382|title=New Species of the Lichen Family Thelotremataceae in SE Asia|year=2002|last1=Homchantara|first1=N.|last2=Coppins|first2=B. J.|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=34|issue=2|pages=113–140|s2cid=85429979 }} 2007 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0024282907006937|title=Reproductive strategy and the compositional dynamics of crustose lichen communities on aspen (Populus tremula L.) in Scotland|year=2007|last1=Ellis|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Coppins|first2=Brian J.|journal=The Lichenologist|volume=39|issue=4|pages=377–391|s2cid=86143004 }} 2007 * {{cite journal|author=Brand, M.|author2=Coppins, B. J.|author3=van den Boom, P. P.|author4=Sérusiaux, E.|year=2009|title=Further data on the lichen genus ''Basidia'' s.l. in the Canary Islands and Western Europe, with descriptions of two new species|journal=Bibliotheca Lichenologica|volume=99|pages=81–92|url=https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/10111/1/Brand-BL99-81-91.pdf}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1472-4642.2009.00624.x|title=Integrating multiple landscape-scale drivers in the lichen epiphyte response: Climatic setting, pollution regime and woodland spatial-temporal structure|year=2010|last1=Ellis|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Coppins|first2=Brian J.|journal=Diversity and Distributions|volume=16|pages=43–52|s2cid=83698609 |doi-access=free}} 2010 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03677.x|title=DNA barcoding of lichenized fungi demonstrates high identification success in a floristic context|year=2011|last1=Kelly|first1=Laura J.|last2=Hollingsworth|first2=Peter M.|last3=Coppins|first3=Brian J.|last4=Ellis|first4=Christopher J.|last5=Harrold|first5=Paul|last6=Tosh|first6=James|last7=Yahr|first7=Rebecca|journal=New Phytologist|volume=191|issue=1|pages=288–300|pmid=21434928|doi-access=free}} 2011 * {{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.biocon.2014.09.046|title=Response of epiphytic lichens to 21st Century climate change and tree disease scenarios|year=2014|last1=Ellis|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Eaton|first2=Sally|last3=Theodoropoulos|first3=Marios|last4=Coppins|first4=Brian J.|last5=Seaward|first5=Mark R.D.|last6=Simkin|first6=Janet|journal=Biological Conservation|volume=180|pages=153–164}} 2014

==See also== *[[:Category:Taxa named by Brian John Coppins]]

==References== <references>

<ref name="Gilbert 2004">{{cite book |author-link=Oliver Gilbert (lichenologist) |last=Gilbert |first=Oliver |year=2004 |title=The Lichen Hunters |publisher=Book Guild |location=Lewes, East Sussex |isbn=978-1-85776-930-2 |at=chapter 1&2}}</ref>

<ref name="Lücking et al. 2014">{{cite journal |last1=Lücking |first1=Robert |last2=Barrie |first2=Fred R. |last3=Genney |first3=David |title=''Dictyonema coppinsii'', a new name for the European species known as ''Dictyonema interruptum'' (Basidiomycota: Agaricales: Hygrophoraceae) |journal=The Lichenologist |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=261–267 |year=2014 |doi=10.1017/S0024282913000352}}</ref>

</references>

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coppins, Brian John}} [[Category:1949 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:British lichenologists]] [[Category:20th-century British botanists]] [[Category:21st-century British botanists]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Hull]] [[Category:Alumni of King's College London]] [[Category:Acharius Medal recipients]] [[Category:People from Pembury]]