Herrando Pérez Salvador

Investigación

CURRENT ROLE: I serve as Science Manager in Miguel B. Araújo's lab [www.maraujolab.eu] (February 2024-present).

RESEARCH: I am a quantitative ecologist focused on the curation and analysis of biodiversity data. My work spans taxa and habitats and bridges contemporary ecology with deep-time perspectives, with a growing emphasis on palaeoecology. My core strength is careful, methodical work that improves the quality, consistency and reliability of biological data resources. I aim to improve the accuracy of Quaternary megafaunal chronologies using radiocarbon dating of fossil collagen. I have published 37 peer-reviewed scientific papers (20 as first author), lectured 15 postgraduate courses on multivariate statistics, developed two statistical R packages, and described four species new to science. Since 2011, I have actively engaged in science communication, producing more than 100 printed articles and blogs, contributintg to knowledge dissemination across academic and public audiences.

TRAINING: My career has been built through a BSc in Biology/Zoology (1991), an MPhil in marine ecology (1992-1996) and a PhD in population dynamics (2007-2012), with postdoctoral work spanning ecophysiology (2013-2015), palaeoecology (2012-2013, 2018-2020, 2021-present), ecological monitoring (2021-2022) and fire ecology (2022-2023). Throughout, I experienced nine years of career interruptions, primarily due to parenting responsibilities, while maintaining research engagement, productivity and resilience.

LATEST PUBLICATIONS

Peer-review (only palaeoecology)
Herrando-Pérez S, MBA Araújo 2026. Rewilding Iberia (in review)
Herrando-Pérez S et al 2026. A database of radiocarbon dates from Holarctic mammal collagen purified with high-quality chemistry. Scientific Data 13:556. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06562-3 / blogpost here
Herrando-Pérez S, Stafford Jr TW 2025. Making vertebrate fossil radiocarbon dates more useful for global scientific research. Journal of Quaternary Science 40:1309-1335. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70012 
Herrando-Pérez S, Saltré F 2024. Estimating extinction time using radiocarbon dates. Quaternary Geochronology 79:101489. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2023.101489
Bradshaw CJA, S Herrando-Pérez 2023. Logistic-growth models measuring density feedback are sensitive to population declines, but not fluctuating carrying capacity. Ecology and Evolution 13:e10010. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10010
Herrando-Pérez S 2021. Bone need not remain an elephant in the room for radiocarbon dating. Royal Society Open Science 8:201351. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201351 / blogpost here
Herrando-Pérez S, R Tobler, CD Huber 2021. smartsnp, an r package for fast multivariate analyses of big genomic data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 12: 2084-2093. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13684 . Blogposts here and here

Blog posts (global change and biodiversity)
Herrando-Pérez S, CJA Bradshaw 2026. Protecting the biodiversity brand through sport. Conservation Bytes (15/04/2026)
Herrando-Pérez S, N Aguilar de Soto 2026. When noise signals danger. Conservation Bytes (10/04/2026)
Herrando-Pérez S 2026. Our pets are predators. Conservation Bytes (21/01/2026)
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. Fear of humans. Conservation Bytes (28/08/2025)
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. A long life can be a disadvantage. Conservation Bytes (12/06/2025)
Herrando-Pérez S, R Early 2025. The colour of survival. Conservation Bytes (06/05/2025)
Herrando-Pérez S, LF Camacho 2025. Trapped in the light. Conservation Bytes (01/03/2025) 
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. iEcology identifies extent of synthetic polymer habitats. Conservation Bytes (02/01/2025) 

Quercus magazine (global change and biodiversity - bimonthly  section, in Spanish)
Herrando-Pérez S, P Bover, G Olaf 2026. Comerciando con plumas. Quercus 484(June): in press.
Herrando-Pérez S 2026. Proteger puede desproteger. Quercus 482(April): 52-54.
Herrando-Pérez S, CJA Bradshaw 2026. Proteger el escudo. Quercus 480(February): 54-56
Herrando-Pérez S, J Albesa 2025. Lo que el blanco se llevó. Quercus 478(December): 64-66
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. Cuernos de lujo. Quercus 476(October): 62-64
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. Versos de agua dulce. Quercus 474(August): 62-64
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. Nuestras mascotas son depredadores. Quercus 472(June): 56-58
Herrando-Pérez S 2025. Nos tienen miedo. Quercus 470(April): 56-58
Herrando-Pérez S, R Early 2025. El color de la supervivencia. Quercus 468(February): 54-56

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JOURNAL COVERS FEATURING MY WORK

R PACKAGES DEVELOPED

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/smartsnp

https://github.com/FredSaltre/CRIWM

DATASETS CURATED

MEGA14C-wPS: a dataset of radiocarbon dates from Holarctic mammal collagen purified with high-quality chemistry. https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/18304
MEGA14C: a dataset of radiocarbon dates from Holarctic mammal collagen purified with high-quality chemistry. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.27826200 
FosSahul: a database of quality-rated fossil ages for Sahul’s Quaternary vertebrates. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.53 
 

TRANSLATION

Herrando-Pérez S, DR Vieites 2019. Spanish translation of the Uncertainty Handbook with Climate Outreach & University of Bristol, UK