Article

Donald Strathearn Rawson

Published Online April 13, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Donald Strathearn Rawson, limnologist (b at Claremont, Ont 19 May 1905; d at Saskatoon 16 Feb 1961). His doctoral dissertation (U of T, 1929) on the bottom fauna of Lk Simcoe was a model for ecological limnology for 20 years.

Rawson, Donald Strathearn

Donald Strathearn Rawson, limnologist (b at Claremont, Ont 19 May 1905; d at Saskatoon 16 Feb 1961). His doctoral dissertation (U of T, 1929) on the bottom fauna of Lk Simcoe was a model for ecological limnology for 20 years. His studies of Great Slave and Athabasca lakes opened those lakes to rational exploitation. He pioneered the study of Rocky Mountain lakes and was active on the prairies and Canadian Shield. His definition of the influence of lake basin on lake productivity is the basis of the widely used "morphoedaphic index" to estimate potential fish yield. He joined the faculty of U of Sask in 1928 and became head of biology in 1949.