Eville Gorham
Eville Gorham FRSC (October 15, 1925 — January 14, 2020) was a Canadian-American scientist whose focus has been understanding the chemistry of fresh waters[3] and the ecology and biogeochemistry of peatlands.
[4] In the process, Gorham made a number of practical contributions that included discovering the influence of acid rain in lake acidification,[5][6] plus the importance of the biological magnification of radioactive fallout isotopes in northern food chains.
[7][8][9][10] The former led to legislation and redesign of the power plants of the world to scrub sulfur, and the latter was an early step toward the establishment of an atmospheric nuclear test ban treaty.
His thesis showed the effects of temperature difference in the development of salmon embryos,[16] of later significance for studies of thermal pollution.
In 1947, he received an Overseas Science Research Scholarship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and was accepted as a doctoral student of plant ecology at University College, London.
Gorham began his doctoral work studying mineral content of plants in the Lake District and became interested in the acidification of ecosystems.
After returning to England, he worked first as a Lecturer in Botany at University College, London and later for the Freshwater Biological Association in the English Lake District.
Madge became concerned about implications for the surrounding population after a fire at the Windscale plutonium plant in the Lake District, and asked Gorham to assist in his investigation.
He chanced to read a brief paragraph in a report from the Norwegian Defense Reserve Establishment, which noted that Norway reindeer, which eat lichen, were unusually rich in radioactive elements.
Angus Smith had discovered acid rain in the nineteenth century, but it was restricted to urban/industrial areas; his results had then been lost to science.
Bronchitis was common in urban/industrial areas, correlated with hydrochloric acid, which falls out near its source and therefore largely caused problems in cities.
Gorham served on multiple environmental committees, including the joint Canadian-U.S. scientific commission under President Carter,[17] and took part in many environmental projects, such as those sponsored by the Royal Society of Canada and U.S. Academy of National Sciences, including peatlands,[18] and research trends in ecology (in review) and limnology (in progress).
Eville met his future wife, Ada Macleod of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, in 1945 while studying for the M.Sc.
After a rocky start to their relationship, they decided in 1947 to marry, but Ada would stay at home for a year to live with her ailing father while Eville got his Ph.D. program at University College, London, established.
They were married in 1948 in a brief church ceremony in the Highgate neighborhood, where they lived happily in the home of an older woman and her daughter for four years.
Journal of Ecology 1953;41(1):123-52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2257105 Hayes FR, Pelluet D, Gorham E. Some effects of temperature on the embryonic development of the salmon (Salmo salar).
Lancet 1958;2(7048):691. http://hdl.handle.net/11299/159588 Gorham E. The influence and importance of daily weather conditions in the supply of chloride, sulphate and other ions to fresh waters from atmospheric precipitation.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 1958;241(679):147-78. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1958.0001 Bray JR, Gorham E. Litter production in forests of the world.
