{{Short description|German marine biologist (1852–1914)}} {{Infobox scientist | image = Carl chun.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1852|10|1}} | birth_place = Höchst (Frankfurt), Germany | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1914|4|11|1852|10|1}} | death_place = Leipzig, Germany | education = University of Leipzig, University of Göttingen | fields = Cephalopods and plankton | workplaces = University of Leipzig, University of Breslau | known_for = Seasonal vertical migration<br/>The Valdivia Expedition | author_abbrev_zoo = '''Chun''' | awards = Cothenius Medal of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina }}
'''Carl Chun''' or '''Karl Friedrich Gustav Chun''' ({{IPA|de|ˈkuːn}}; 1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist who worked as a professor at the Universities of Königsberg (1883), Breslau (1891) and Leipzig (1898).<ref name="Mills">{{cite book |last1=Mills |first1=Eric L. |chapter=Alexander Agassiz, Carl Chun and the Problem of the Intermediate Fauna |title=Oceanography: The Past |date=1980 |pages=360–372 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4613-8090-0_34 |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-8090-0_34 |access-date=21 December 2021 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4613-8092-4 |language=en}}</ref> He was a pioneer of German oceanographic research, organizing the first deep-sea expedition aboard the ''SS Valdivia'' in 1898-99. He spent much of his life studying the collections made during the expedition, and was responsible for discovering many marine organisms, including the vampire squid.
== Life and work == Chun was born in Höchst, today a part of Frankfurt, where his father Gustav (1827–1907) was rector of the Weißfrauenschule. Chun went to the Lessing Gymnasium and became interested in zoology from an early age thanks to the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt where he listened to lectures by Fritz Noll, Hermann Theodor Geyler, and Karl von Fritsch. He studied at the University of Göttingen and then at the University of Leipzig, receiving a doctorate in 1874. From 1878 to 1883 he was privat-docent of zoology and an assistant to Rudolf Leuckart. Chun became deeply interested in oceanic organisms and worked at the Naples Zoological Station where he studied and published a monograph on comb jellyfish under Anton Dohrn. He completed his habilitation in Leipzig (1878) and became a professor at the University of Königsberg (1883–1891). He moved to Breslau in 1891 and succeeded Leuckart at Leipzig in 1898.<ref name="LE">[http://www.uni-leipzig.de/unigeschichte/professorenkatalog/leipzig/Chun_770/ UNI Leipzig Professorenkatalog] (biographical sketch)</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Mertens, Robert |url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116516828.html#ndbcontent |title=Neue Deutsche Biographie |year=1957 |volume=3 |pages=252–253 |chapter=Chun, Karl |language=de}}</ref> left|thumb|Peterson's closing net, 1887 Chun was among the first to study and describe siphonophores, the first of which he received from an Italian naval officer who found a specimen at the depth of 1000 m. In order to sample at this depth, he got the engineer of the Naples station, Peterson to design a trap now known as "Peterson Closing Net" in 1887.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Chun, C. |year=1887 |title=Die pelagische Thlerwelt in grösseren Meerestiefen und ihre Beziehungen zu der Oberflächenfauna |url=https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/Zoologica_1_1_0001-0066.pdf |journal=Bibl. Zool. |volume=1 |pages=1–66}}</ref> Using this special device he was able to sample at specific depths.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Dolan |first=John R |date=2023 |title=Pioneers of plankton research: Carl Chun (1852–1914) |url=https://academic.oup.com/plankt/article/45/6/777/7252282 |journal=Journal of Plankton Research |language=en |volume=45 |issue=6 |pages=777–784 |doi=10.1093/plankt/fbad036 |issn=0142-7873}}</ref>
Deep sea exploration had been popularized by the British ''Challenger Expedition'' (1872–1876) and the Germans, not to be left behind, funded Chun's proposal made in 1897 at the meeting of the Deutsche Naturforscher und Aertze in Leipzig. He led the German deep sea expedition aboard the steamship ''SS Valdivia'' which left Hamburg on 1 August 1898.<ref name="LE" /> Chun chose a team who included former students of Leuckart including Otto zur Strassen, his own students Fritz Braem, Ernst Vanhöffen, botanist Wilhelm Schimper, chemist Paul Schmidt, oceanographer Gerhard Schott, physician Martin Bachman and the illustrator Friedrich Winter.<ref name=":1" /> They visited Bouvetøya, the Kerguelen Islands, and other islands, before returning to Hamburg, where they arrived on 1 May 1899.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chun |first=Carl |url=https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/654 |title=Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres |date=1903 |publisher=Gustav Fischer |location=Jena |pages=V, 12 |doi=10.18452/2}}</ref> The material collected was described in 24 volumes that were published until 1940 with more than 70 specialists involved including Sir John Murray of the Challenger expedition.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Wüst, Georg |year=1964 |title=The major deep-sea expeditions and research vessels 1873-1960: a contribution to the history of oceanography. |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19550396.pdf |journal=Progress in Oceanography |volume=2 |pages=1–52|doi=10.1016/0079-6611(64)90002-3 |bibcode=1964PrOce...2....1W }}</ref> left|thumb|Route of the Valdivia Expedition In 1888, Chun described seasonal vertical migration (SVM) of oceanic organisms which has a periodicity of ca. 1 year. Chun examined depth-stratified net samples from the Mediterranean Sea. He explained the seasonal disappearance of jellyfish and crustaceans from the upper pelagic layer of the ocean in terms of their migration to depths below 1000 m. In contrast to diel vertical migration (DVM) which occurs daily, SVM is still not well understood.<ref name="Bandara">{{cite journal |last1=Bandara |first1=Kanchana |last2=Varpe |first2=Øystein |last3=Wijewardene |first3=Lishani |last4=Tverberg |first4=Vigdis |last5=Eiane |first5=Ketil |title=Two hundred years of zooplankton vertical migration research |journal=Biological Reviews |date=August 2021 |volume=96 |issue=4 |pages=1547–1589 |doi=10.1111/brv.12715 |pmid=33942990 |hdl=10037/22091 |s2cid=233722666 |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12715 |access-date=21 December 2021 |language=en |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Rinke">{{cite journal |last1=Rinke |first1=Karsten |last2=Petzoldt |first2=Thomas |title=Individual-based simulation of diel vertical migration of ''Daphnia'': A synthesis of proximate and ultimate factors |journal=Limnologica |date=22 October 2008 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=269–285 |doi=10.1016/j.limno.2008.05.006 |language=en |doi-access=free |bibcode=2008Limng..38..269R }}</ref> He examined the distribution of phytoplankton with depth and demonstrated that although there were differences in distribution, they were not completely absent at any depth as had been claimed by the contemporary American zoologist Alexander Agassiz.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dolan |first=John R |date=2023 |title=Pioneers of plankton research: Salvatore Lo Bianco (1860–1910) |journal=Journal of Plankton Research |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=405–412 |language=en |doi=10.1093/plankt/fbad010 |issn=0142-7873|doi-access=free }}</ref> Chun also examined adaptations of the Schizopod eye in relation to depth and light penetration under the sea. With depth, the eye adapted separate lateral and frontal regions. thumb|upright|Cover of Chun's popular 1900 bookChun was a specialist on cephalopods and plankton. He discovered and named the vampire squid (''Vampyroteuthis infernalis'', which means "vampire squid from hell"). Chun was also interested in making science accessible to larger audiences. He published in a popular narrative of the "Valdivia" expedition, ''Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres'' (1900) which captured the public imagination of the period.<ref>Andreas W. Daum, ''Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914''. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, {{ISBN|3-486-56337-8}}, pp. 330, 428, 480 (2nd ed. 2002 with the same page numbers).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=R. Dolan |first=John |date=2020 |title=Depictions of the Deep: Illustrations in the Popular Press of Deep-Sea Animals from Jules Verne (1860's) to William Beebe (1930's) and beyond |url=https://www.openscience.fr/Depictions-of-the-Deep-Illustrations-in-the-Popular-Press-of-Deep-Sea-Animals |journal=Arts et Sciences |volume=4 |issue=2 |doi=10.21494/ISTE.OP.2020.0475|doi-access=free }}</ref>
Chun married Lily, the daughter of Karl Vogt, whom he first met while working at the Naples Zoological Station in 1884. They had two daughters Annie (b. 1885) who married Otto zur Strassen and Lily (born 1887) who became a social democrat and was married to the botanist Ernst Pringsheim Jr. Chun suffered for several years after a deer trophy fell off the wall onto him in November 1908. Shortly after recovering from the injury he developed a heart problem and died on 11 April 1914 in Leipzig, Germany, aged 61.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Chun, Karl Friedrich Gustav |url=https://www.lagis-hessen.de/pnd/116516828 |publisher=Hessische Biografie}}</ref>
== Selected works == * ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/14876 Aus den Tiefen des Weltmeeres]'', Jena 1900. * ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/1519 Allgemeine Biologie]'', Leipzig 1915. * ''[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/13499 Die Cephalopoden]'', 2 volumes., Jena 1910.<ref name=LE/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== Ilse Jahn, ed., ''Geschichte der Biologie: Theorien, Methoden, Institutionen, Kurzbiographien''. 3. ed., Berlin: Spektrum, 2000, {{ISBN|978-3-8274-1023-8}}, pp. 798, 867, 881, 900, 996.
== External links == * [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/2171 Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf dem Dampfer "Valdivia" 1898–1899 ] * [https://badw.de/fileadmin/nachrufe/Chun%20K..pdf Biography in Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Jahrbuch 1915.] (in German)<!-- needs to be incorporated into references if someone can find the full citation --> * [https://doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbad036 Pioneers of Plankton Research: Carl Chun (1852–1914)]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chun, Carl}} Category:1852 births Category:1914 deaths Category:19th-century German biologists Category:20th-century German biologists Category:German malacologists Category:German marine biologists Category:Teuthologists Category:Scientists from Frankfurt Category:Academic staff of Leipzig University Category:Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Category:Academic staff of the University of Breslau Category:Recipients of the Cothenius Medal