Paul B. Sears (1891-1990) began his career in 1915, the same year that a group of botanists and zoologists met at The Ohio State University to form the Ecological Society of America. Although Sears’ initial work was in cell biology and physiology, he was intrigued by his colleagues’ debates on the origins of the extensive Ohio prairie areas. We were able to reconstruct an almost day-by-day account of his activities by examining archival resources and interviewing former colleagues. A chain of coincidental events and opportunities led ultimately to Sears’ facilitating development of palynology in North America, a field based in descriptive science that provides a viable tool for asking hypothesis-based questions. As ESA’s centennial approaches, we use Sears’ role in Quaternary palynology to illustrate research of early ecologists; in particular we focus on the decades of primarily descriptive research that typify an emphasis more valued by ecology than some other life sciences. In palynology, as in Sears’ other major contributions to ecology, chance and the recognition of opportunity played a major role.

Results/Conclusions

Sears began research into the origins of Ohio prairies by developing a methodology to map prairies present at Euro-American settlement and attempting to correlate their distribution with hydrogeologic features. However, he had no way to test H.A. Gleason’s competing hypothesis that the prairies were remnants of an earlier, warmer period. In 1925, Sears read a German review of the new science of palynology and immediately realized it could provide such a test. At the University of Oklahoma (1927) he focused on palynological research; his data and exquisite drawings of pollen grains became the keystone Fossil Pollen of the Erie Basin (1930). By the early 1930s he was attempting to transform pollen data to climate data and examining sediment accumulation rates in basins. The Dust Bowl drove him to write Deserts on the March (1935), bringing him prominence in conservation. At Oberlin College (1938), he continued palynological research. His Pollen & Spore Circular kept American and European palynologists in communication through World War II, although his conservation activities increasingly took precedence. Recent examples from global climate change and restoration ecology show the importance of Sears' contributions for addressing issues facing the world today.