Kaarlo Linkola

{{Short description|Finnish botanist and phytogeographer}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Kaarlo Linkola

|image = Helsingin yliopiston kasvitieteen professori, filosofian tohtori Kaarlo Linkola.jpg

|image_size =

|caption = Rector Kaarlo Linkola

|birth_date = 6 June 1888

|birth_place = Joensuu, Finland

|death_date = 26 April 1942

|death_place = Helsinki, Finland

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|citizenship =

|nationality = Finnish

|ethnicity =

|field = botany, plant ecology

|work_institutions = University of Helsinki

|alma_mater = University of Helsinki

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|known_for =

|author_abbrev_bot = Linkola

|author_abbrev_zoo =

|influences =

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}}

Kaarlo Linkola (surname until 1906 Collan; 1888–1942) was a Finnish botanist and phytogeographer.

Linkola was docent of botany at Helsinki University 1919–1922. He was professor of botany at University of Turku from 1922, and at Helsinki University from 1925 (in a newly established second chair of botany). He was head of the botanical institute from 1926, dean of the Faculty of Science for two periods (1930–1933 and 1936–1938) and rector of Helsinki University 1938–1941.

In 1921, he edited and distributed the exsiccata Nylander and Norrlin, herbarium lichenum Fenniae continuatio with Edvard August Vainio.{{cite web |title=Nylander and Norrlin, herbarium lichenum Fenniae continuatio: IndExs ExsiccataID=979070484 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=979070484 |access-date=16 August 2024}}

Linkola's doctoral dissertation (1916) dealt with the impact of culture of vegetation in Southern Karelia.{{cite journal | last1 = Linkola | first1 = K | year = 1916 | title = Studien über den Einfluss der Kultur auf die Flora in den Gegenden nördlich vom Ladoga-See. I. Allgemeiner Teil | journal = Acta Societatis Pro Fauna et Flora Fennica | volume = 45 | issue = 1| pages = 1–429 }}{{cite journal | last1 = Linkola | first1 = K | year = 1916 | title = Studien über den Einfluss der Kultur auf die Flora in den Gegenden nördlich vom Ladoga-See. II. Spezieller Teil | journal = Acta Societatis Pro Fauna et Flora Fennica | volume = 45 | issue = 2| pages = 1–491 }} Much later Ilkka Hanski used Linkola's data on plants associated with villages isolated in the boreal forest landscape matrix to illustrate his core-satellite species hypothesis.{{cite journal | last1 = Hanski | first1 = I | year = 1982 | title = Distributional ecology of anthropochorous plants in villages surrounded by forest | journal = Annales Botanici Fennici | volume = 19 | pages = 1–15 }}{{cite journal | last1 = Hanski | first1 = I | year = 1982 | title = Dynamics of regional distribution: the core and satellite species hypothesis | journal = Oikos | volume = 38 | issue = 2| pages = 210–221 | doi=10.2307/3544021| jstor = 3544021 | bibcode = 1982Oikos..38..210H }}

Linkola made a unique contribution to the understanding of regeneration in herbaceous plant communities in studying the natural occurrence of seedlings in meadows and on cliffs.{{cite journal | last1 = Linkola | first1 = K | year = 1932 | title = Über das Vorkommen von Samenkeimlinge bei Pollakanthen in den natürlichen Pflanzengesellschaften. | journal = Annales Societatis Zoologicae-Botanicae Fennicae Vanamo | volume = 11 | pages = 150–172 }}

Linkola and his students made a suite of investigations of root architecture. These studies are amongst the earliest in a still oft-neglected field.{{cite journal | last1 = Metsävainio | first1 = K | year = 1931 | title = Untersuchungen über das Wurzelsystem der Moorpflanzen | journal = Annales Botanici Societatis Zoologicæ-Botanicæ Fennicæ Vanamo | volume = 1 | pages = 1–422 | title-link = moorland }}{{cite journal | last1 = Murén | first1 = A | year = 1934 | title = Tutkimuksia vesikasvien juurista (Untersuchungen über die Wurzeln der Wasserpflanzen) | journal = Annales Botanici Societatis Zoologicæ-Botanicæ Fennicæ Vanamo | volume = 5 | pages = 1–56 | title-link = hydrophyte }}{{cite journal | last1 = Linkola | first1 = K. | last2 = Tiirikka | first2 = A. | year = 1936 | title = Über Wurzelsysteme und Wurzelausbreitung der Wiesenpflanzen auf verschiedene Wiesenstandorten | journal = Annales Botanici Societatis Zoologicæ-Botanicæ Fennicæ Vanamo | volume = 6 | pages = 1–207 | title-link = meadow }}{{cite journal | last1 = Kivenheimo | first1 = V. J. | year = 1947 | title = Untersuchungen über die Wurzelsysteme der Samenpflanzen in der Bodenvegetation der Wälder Finnlands | journal = Annales Botanici Societatis Zoologicæ-Botanicæ Fennicæ Vanamo | volume = 22 | pages = 1–180 | title-link = forest }} The last of these reports was published quite a while after Linkola's early death.

Kaarlo Linkola was member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He co-founded the Finnish Union for Nature Protection and was its first chairman. He was father of Pentti Linkola. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.{{Cite web|url=https://www.helsinginseurakunnat.fi/material/attachments/hautausmaat/hietaniemi/w8GZkM0y7/Hietaniemen_merkittavia_vainajia.pdf|title=Hietaniemen hautausmaa – merkittäviä vainajia|publisher=Helsingin seurakuntayhtymä|access-date=27 August 2016}}

The lichen species Verrucaria linkolae {{small|Pykälä & Myllys (2024)}} is named in his honour.

{{botanist|Linkola|Linkola, Kaarlo}}