Diaz Esteban Mario

Investigación

I got my PhD in Biology at the Complutense University of Madrid in 1991. After more than 10 years of university teaching (Zoology, Zoogeography, Ecology, Conservation Biology, Wildlife Management, Environmental Impact Assessment at the Universities Complutense and Castilla-La Mancha), I got a position in the CSIC as Associate Researcher in 2007 and afterwards as Full Professor in 2022. I have been the Head of the Department of Biogeography and Global Change at the National Museum of Natural Sciences from its creation in 2012 until March 2017, President of the Scientific Committee of SEO/BirdLife International from 2012 to 2021 and member from 2001 to 2012, member of the Scientific Committee for the official lists of Spanish Endangered and Invasive species from 2011 to 2021, and Editor-in-Chief of Ardeola (1996-2002 and 2016) and Frontiers in Conservation Science (2022-onwards), among other scientific journals.
My work is focused on the ecology and conservation of keystone species in man-made ecosystems. I am mostly interested in the role of such keystone species for the long-term sustainability of such systems, and on the ways human uses influence the ecosystem services provided by them. My research lines are essentially multi- and interdisciplinary, spanning fields within the biological (ecology, evolution, conservation, behavior, physiology) and social (economy, sociology) sciences. I am thus integrated in several research networks: the GlobiMed network, with leading Spanish terrestrial ecologists interested in forest management and restoration; the RECAMAN project (www.recaman.es), with economists, forest engineers, zoologists and ecologists interested in developing proper accounting systems for ecosystem services; the core group of 20 biologists, economists and policy scientists who are designing the evaluation of the social and environmental performance of the new European Common Agricultural Policy; and the URBICON project, with a core international team of biologists from 14 European and 6 American countries interested in the ecology of fear and the adaptation of organism to urban life. Further, my involvement with ONGs and Administrations is allowing me to contribute directly to develop conservation-driven policies aimed at improving the sustainability of the land use systems in which I focus my research work, namely agricultural systems, dehesas, managed forests, and urban habitats.
I have published more than 130 SCI papers receiving over 5600 citations (WoS), as well as several books, book chapters and other publications receiving some 11000 citations overall (Google Scholar). I have participated in c.a. 40 national and international competitive research projects, leading 19. I have supervised 8 PhD Theses, 14 MsC Theses, and 32 BaC Theses, and I am currently supervising two PhDs (one in Spain and other in Ecuador) and 2-5 graduate and postgraduate students yearly on average, most from several Spanish universities. I regularly evaluate research projects, contracts and grants financed by Spanish and other European research agencies, as well as manuscripts received by some 40 scientific journals such as Oecologia, Ecography, Ecology, Global Change Biology, Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Biological Conservation, Basic and Applied Ecology, Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, Behavioral Ecology and PLoS ONE.