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Researcher Carlos M. Herrera receives the Ramon Margalef Ecology Award

10 October 2024

Researcher Carlos M. Herrera receives the Ramon Margalef Ecology Award

Herrera is an internationally recognised for his contributions to the field of evolutionary ecology, especially in the field of plant-animal interactions.

This year he will also be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Jaén.
The President of the Generalitat de Catalunya Illa presents the Ramon Margalef Award to Carlos M. Herrera/ Arnau Carbonell Vidal

The emeritus researcher of the Doñana Biological Station - CSIC Carlos M. Herrera has received this Tuesday the Ramón Margalef Prize in Ecology, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, from the President of the Government of Catalonia, Salvador Illa i Roca. The event took place at the University of Barcelona, where Herrera gave the lecture ‘Ecology, epigenetics and the diffuse individuality of plants’ and took part in a series of activities to debate the prospects and challenges of ecology in a context of change. In his speech, the ecologist from Seville stated that he will donate the prize money to the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology, to be invested in ‘training projects for young scientists’.

The aim of the Ramón Margalef Ecology Prize is to recognise a scientific career or discovery in the field of ecological sciences. In this case, the jury of the award v. Herrera has become a recognised figure in the international scientific sphere in this field.

Herrera studied at the University of Seville, where he obtained his degree in Biology in 1974 and then his PhD in 1977. Two years later he obtained a permanent position as a scientist at the Estación Biológica de Doñana - CSIC and has been a Research Professor at the same institution since 1986. Herrera initially began his scientific career as an ornithologist, investigating the consumption of fruit by birds in Mediterranean ecosystems, and later broadened his research lines to include scientific work on the study of seed dispersal and pollination ecology. His lines of research have focused over time on many different facets of the evolutionary ecology of mutualistic plant-animal interactions, including plant-frugivore, plant-pollinator and plant-herbivore relationships, as well as the plant-pollinator-fungus tritrophic system. 

He has been one of the first experts to appreciate the importance of phylogenetic inertia and historical contingency in understanding patterns of interaction between plants and animals, beyond the ecological context. More recently, Herrera has also opened new perspectives by identifying the ecological importance of epigenetics in non-model plant species, analysing the contribution of epigenetic mechanisms in processes of ecological adaptation and evolutionary change.

His scientific publications include more than 230 articles or book chapters and he is the author or editor of 10 books or monographs. In addition to his scientific career, Herrera is strongly committed to scientific dissemination aimed at raising awareness of the social and biological values of biodiversity with more than 200 publications. He is actively involved in the transfer of scientific 

In addition to this award, Herrera has been widely honoured with numerous scientific career awards. Among them are the National Research Award ‘Alejandro Malaspina’ in the area of Sciences and Technologies of Natural Resources, the Gold Medal of the British Ecological Society, the American Society of Naturalist Award or the Andalusia Environment Award. He is also an elected member of the European Academy and an honorary member of the Spanish Society of Terrestrial Ecology and the Spanish Society of Evolutionary Biology.

This year, the researcher will also be named Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Jaén.