Nicolae Doniță, forestry engineer, Doctor of Forestry, and member of the Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences of Romania, was born in Chișinău (Bessarabia) on November 20, 1929. He attended primary school in his hometown. In 1940 and in 1944, he took refuge with his family from Bessarabia. He continued high school in Turda and then studied forestry at the Forestry Institute in Brașov, becoming a forestry engineer in 1955.

After a one-year internship at the Sebiș Forest District in Arad County, he was hired in 1956 by the Forestry Research Group of the Romanian Academy, upon the recommendation of his former Botany professor, C.C. Georgescu, a well-known scientist and Academy member. He began his career under the guidance of Professor Sergiu Pașcovschi, who had described the forest types of Romania.
From the very beginning, he became involved in two major research programs: the development of the geobotanical map for the first Geography Treatise of Romania (published in 1960 and 1961) and the description of the woody vegetation of Romania’s forest-steppe (S. Pașcovschi, N. Doniță 1967).

After the Forestry Research Group was incorporated into the new Institute of Biology of the Academy and the Ecology Laboratory was established, he worked in this laboratory under the guidance of specialists of high scientific standing: Alice Săvulescu, Nicolae Sălăgeanu, C.C. Georgescu, Grigore Eliescu, Ion Popescu-Zeletin , all members of the Academy, and Ana Paucă.
In 1959, a program of complex ecological research in forest ecosystems of the Babadag Plateau (Dobrogea) was initiated, in which Nicolae Doniță also participated alongside a large team of researchers from the Institute. This took place even before the start of research under the International Biological Program. The studies lasted six years and were later extended to other areas. The results were published in 1970, 1971, 1979, and 1985 in monographs and numerous articles.

Using the results of these studies, Nicolae Doniță prepared his doctoral thesis titled “Geobotanical and Silvicultural Research in the Oak–Hornbeam Forests of the Babadag Plateau,” under the supervision of Professor Emil Negulescu, and obtained the title of Doctor of Forestry from the Faculty of Forestry in Brașov in 1970. In the same year, he applied for and received a research scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in the Federal Republic of Germany, specializing in Ecology and Physiology at the University of Göttingen in 1970–1971, under the guidance of Europe’s most distinguished ecologist and phytocenologist, Professor H. Ellenberg.

In 1971, he participated in a scientific ecology conference where he presented a paper and encountered two leading ecologists: R. Whittaker from the USA and P. Duvigneaud from Belgium. In that same year, he also took part in the 15th International Phytogeographical Expedition in Greece, where he met many European specialists, among them Professor H. Walter from Germany, author of the major work Vegetation of the Earth, and Professor P. Ozenda from France, author of a vegetation map of Europe.

Upon returning to the country, he found that he had been transferred, along with his forestry colleagues Constantin Bândiu, Vasile Mocanu, and Vasile Tutunaru, from the Institute of Biology of the Academy to the Institute of Forestry Research and Planning in Bucharest. At this institute, a Forest Ecology Laboratory was established. From 1975, Nicolae Doniță led this laboratory for 22 years, until his retirement in 1997.

Setting aside the various organizational changes that occurred in this institute, the most important achievements in ecological and phytogeographical research during this quarter-century in this laboratory will be highlighted.

Development of Vegetation and Forest Cartography

Following the two geobotanical maps (1960, 1961), Nicolae Doniță prepared two additional vegetation maps: one for the Atlas of Romania (1976) and one for the volume Vegetation of Romania (1992); four forest maps (1975, 1980, 1981, 1987); and two general maps of Romania’s forests (1996, 2008). He also contributed through the publication of several articles in scientific journals.

The most recent forest map, by ecosystem units (2008), has had and continues to have a complex application by establishing the geospatial and digital foundation of forests, with multiple uses in forest management, land-use planning, biodiversity conservation, wildlife management, and more.

However, Nicolae Doniță’s greatest contribution to the development of vegetation cartography was his participation in creating the vegetation map of Europe, on which he worked between 1979 and 2000. He also contributed by including Romania’s vegetation in this map and by describing, in collaboration with other specialists, two major vegetation units: the thermophilous oak forests and the forest-steppe (U. Bohn, N. Doniță et al., 2000; N. Doniță et al., 2003).

For his contributions in the fields of vegetation and forest cartography, N. Doniță was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the Mihai I University of Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Timișoara in 2014.

Ecological and Geographical Foundations of Forest Management in Romania

The first step in establishing this foundation was the preparation and publication of the treatise of Forest Ecology (N. Doniță, I. Ceianu, S. Purcelean, A. Beldie, 1977), aimed at providing ecological information to foresters. This treatise was later also used in student training programs.

A research program was initiated for the zoning and regionalization of Romania’s forests, carried out by a large team of researchers from the institute as well as from other institutes (N. Doniță et al., 1980). Numerous scientific data were used, and a detailed map was developed (N. Doniță, 1980).

In another program, the types of forest ecosystems in Romania were described as ecological work objects for foresters (N. Doniță, C. Chiriță, V. Stănescu et al., 1990).

A treatise on ecosystem-based forestry was also prepared (I. Vlad, C. Chiriță, N. Doniță, L. Petrescu, 1997), detailing ecologically grounded management measures.

Using his second Humboldt Foundation scholarship (1984–1985), he studied the technology for producing high-quality oak timber in several forest districts in Germany and France (N. Doniță, 1987).

Conservation of Forest Biodiversity and Other Vegetation Formations

Following an inventory of existing forest reserves in 1987–1988, N. Doniță and other researchers worked on the establishment of the first 13 national parks (1991–1992).

He contributed to the identification of high conservation value forests (E. Stanciu, N. Doniță et al., 2003) and to the field identification of virgin forests (2003–2004), the guide for their ecological selection and evaluation (S. Radu, N. Doniță et al., 2004), and their inventory as well as management and protection strategies (I. Biriș, P. Veen, N. Doniță et al., 2005).

In collaboration with fellow biologists, he described habitats in Romania (N. Doniță, A. Popescu, S. Mihăilescu, M. Paucă, 2005) and the vegetation of Măcin Mountains National Park (A. Popescu, N. Doniță, 2013).

For his contributions to biodiversity conservation, he was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava in 2011.

Other Activities

Between 1992 and 1994, he worked as a typology specialist on the forest management plans of the Republic of Moldova and described several forest types (N. Doniță, T. Ivanschi, 1994). He also collaborated on a research program concerning these types (N. Doniță et al., 2007).

For these contributions, as well as for his cooperation in training highly qualified specialists, he was awarded the Dimitrie Cantemir Medal by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova.

At the invitation of Professor S. Pedrotti, director of the Institute of Botany and Ecology at the University of Camerino, Italy, Nicolae Doniță, together with his wife Dr. Doina Ivan, studied plant populations in the meadows of the Apennines and Alps (D. Ivan, N. Doniță et al., 1994; N. Doniță, D. Ivan, F. Pedrotti, 2003).

Teaching Activities

Between 1990 and 2009, Nicolae Doniță developed and taught courses in Ecology and Forest Geography, Dendrology, History of Forests and Forestry, Phytocenology, and Forest Cultivation at the Universities of Bucharest, Oradea, Arad, and Timișoara.

At the Faculty of Forestry in Brașov, he supervised the training of 14 doctoral students in forestry.

Publications

Nicolae Doniță published over 250 scientific works as sole author or co-author, including 55 publications abroad. His works include 2 treatises, 14 monographs, 9 maps, 19 book chapters, 9 university courses, 30 manuals and technical guides, 8 papers presented at international conferences and congresses, and numerous articles in scientific journals.

For six works in which he was a co-author, he received awards from the Romanian Academy.

He participated with scientific papers in many events both in Romania and abroad, and in three world congresses — Apiculture in Bucharest (1964), Ecology in Yokohama (1990), and World Forestry in Antalya (1996).

In 2023, Nicolae Doniță was awarded, for his entire scientific and teaching career, the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by Transilvania University of Brașov.

Since 2016, he has been engaged in clarifying theoretical problems in Systemic Ecology in collaboration with the biologist Professor Dr. S. Godeanu.