Luis E. Santamaría Galdón, Ph.D.
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5072-2912
Scopus: 16639604000
Researcher ID: C-1438-2012
Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=smaQnCAAAAAJ
SUMMARY
Luis Santamaría (MSc Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, PhD Wageningen University) was senior researcher of the Netherlands institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW; 1995-2002) and fellow researcher at the University of Tokyo (Japan; 2006) and Cornell University (USA; 2012). He is part of the Department of Conservation Biology and Global Change at the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC), where he leads the Spatial Ecology Group.
He has more than 130 research publications in ecology, evolution and conservation policy, most (102) as articles in peer-reviewed, international journals, and was included in Stanford University’s 2021 ‘World's Top 2% Scientists’ ranking. He participated in 34 research projects, including 10 EU-funded projects and 4 international projects, and 3 contracts with the public and private sectors, which attracted ca.4,5 M€ to his research centers (3,02 M€ during the last 10 years).
His research focuses on (1) the role of resource barriers on plant-animal coevolution; (2) the role of animal movement on resource utilization by herbivores and the dispersal of sessile organisms; and (3) the co-design of adaptive management programs. His research combines methodologies from natural and social sciences, observational and experimental studies, as well as local studies and broad regional surveys.
His contributions to scientific knowledge include: the quantification of waterbird-mediated dispersals as a key determinant of the distribution and genetic structure of aquatic organisms; the study of (endo)zoochorous seed dispersal patterns and efficiency using spatially explicit models; the study of floral resource barriers as a key element if the evolution of plant-pollinator interactions; and the development of transdisciplinary strategies for biodiversity and natural resource management, based on adaptive management tenets and knowledge-synthesis techniques.
He supervised 7 successfully-defended PhD theses, 3 of them in the last 10 years. He is part of the Experts Group on Knowledge Synthesis Methods of the Knowledge & Learning Mechanism on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, developed by EKLIPSE H2020 project. He is the current president of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AACTE) and member of the national Steering Committee of Future Earth. His interest in reaching to the general public has resulted in numerous radio and newspaper interviews, as well as the biweekly section Ciencia Crítica in the online journal eldiario.es.
PUBLICATIONS
Summary
105 articles in refereed (SCI) journals, 14 non-SCI journals, 2 books and 17 collective-book chapters.
WoS: 5071 citations, 50.3 citations per article. H-index: 36.
Scopus: 5332 citations, 51.5 citations per article. H-index: 37.
Google Scholar: 8155 citations. H-index: 47. i10 index: 99.
1. Santamaría, L., Martin-Ortega, J. (2023) How Europe’s most iconic wetland could be finished off by a strawberry farming bill. Nature Water. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00100-w
2. Giralt-Rueda, J. M., & Santamaría, L. (2023). Landscape heterogeneity increases the stability of wild ungulate populations facing climatic variability in Mediterranean ecosystems. Science of The Total Environment, 164826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164826
3. van Leeuwen, C.H.A., Villar, N., Mendoza Sagrera, I., Green, A.J., Bakker, E.S., Soons, M.B., Galetti, M., Jansen, P.A., Nolet, B.A. and Santamaría, L. (2022), A seed dispersal effectiveness framework across the mutualism–antagonism continuum. Oikos e09254. https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09254https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.09254.
4. Giralt-Rueda, J.M., Santamaría, L. 2021. Complementary differences in primary production and phenology among vegetation types increase ecosystem resilience to climate change and grazing pressure in an iconic Mediterranean ecosystem. Remote Sensing 13, 3920. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13193920.
5. Santamaría, L., Hortal, J. 2020. Chasing the ghost of infection past: identifying thresholds of change during the COVID-19 infection in Spain. Epidemiology and Infection 148, e282. doi: 10.1017/S0950268820002782.
6. Méndez P., Amezaga J., Santamaría L. 2019. Explaining path dependent rigidity traps: increasing returns, power, discourses and entrepreneurship intertwined in social-ecological systems. Ecology & Society 24: 30. DOI: 10.5751/ES-10898-240230
7. Lumbierres, M., Méndez, P.F., Bustamante, J., Soriguer, R., Santamaría, L. 2017. Modeling Biomass Production in Seasonal Wetlands Using MODIS NDVI Land Surface Phenology. Remote Sensing 9, 392. DOI: 10.3390/rs9040392
8. Viana, D., Santamaría, L., Figuerola, J. 2016. Migratory birds as global dispersal vectors. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 31: 763–775. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2016.07.005
9. Bakker L, Wood K, Pages JF, …, Hilt S. (6/8) 2016. Herbivory on freshwater and marine macrophytes: a review and perspective. Aquatic Botany (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.aquabot.2016.04.008
10. Viana, D., Cid, B., Figuerola, Santamaría, L. 2016. Disentangling the roles of diversity resistance and priority effects in community assembly. Oecologia 185: 865-875. DOI:10.1007/s00442-016-3715-1
CONGRESSES (10 selected)
1. Toward the adaptive co-management of Andalusian ecosystems: linking historical information with innovative science-policy processes at the Doñana National Park. The LifeWatch ERIC Biodiversity & Ecosystem eScience Conference. Sevilla, Spain. 22-24 May 2023. Oral presentation.
2. The Life-Adaptamed project: an example of Adaptive Management in a global change setting. Euro-Mediterranean Symposium on ‘Adaptive Management for the protection of ecosystem services in natural areas’. [in Spanish] Málaga, Spain. 17-19 November 2021. Oral presentation.
3. Integrating animal and plant movement: predicting animal-mediated dispersal from local to continental scales. Symposium on ‘Seed dispersal by vertebrates in forests and wetlands: unifying concepts in tropical and temperate systems’. NIOO-KNAW, Wageningen, The Netherlands. 17 March 2019. Oral presentation.
4. Top-down, bottom-up and horizontal effects: an expanded framework to evaluate the need and success of rewilding. Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM 2018). Lunteren, The Netherlands. 12-13 February 2019. Oral presentation.
5. Models as consensus-building tools: Collaborative modelling and the integrated assessment of ecosystem services. ESP regional conference, Europe 2018, ‘Ecosystem services in a changing world: moving from theory to practice’. San Sebastián, Spain. 15-19 October 2018. Oral presentation.
6. Mediterranean wetlands: Why they are so difficult to manage and how remote sensing could help [in Spanish]. 16th National Congress on Remote Sensing (XVI Congreso Nacional de Teledetección). Sevilla, Spain. 22/10/15. Keynote speaker.
7. Dispersal in anthropogenic landscapes. Insights from terrestrial and aquatic systems. Symposium on ‘Ecological Consequences of Waterbird Movement‘. University of Utrecht. 22/09/15. Invited speaker.
8. Seed dispersal in anthropogenic landscapes. Incorporating the role of individual decisions by animal dispersers. 4th Iberian Ecology Congress SPECO-AEET. Coimbra, Portugal. 16-19 June 2015. Oral presentation.
9. Méndez, P.F., Amezaga, J.M., Bustamante, J., Santamaría, L., Diaz-Delgado, R. Continuous improvement of the science-policy interface for ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation in multifunctional coastal landscapes ruled by rigid institutions – The case of Doñana. ESP regional conference, Europe 2018, “Ecosystem services in a changing world: moving from theory to practice”. San Sebastián, Spain, 15-19 October 2018. Poster.
10. Gómez-Díaz, E., Ayats, T., Huertas, J., Figuerola, J., Santamaria, L., Cerdà-Cuéllar, M. Diversity of Salmonella spp. circulating in wild endemic lizards in natural and semi-urban environments. 7th Congress of European Microbiologists. Valencia, Spain, 9-13 July 2017. Poster.
RESEARCH PROJECTS (10 selected)
1. Increasing the resilience of High Nature Value pastoral systems hosting wild and domestic ungulates (RESILGRAZE). Ref. PID2022-143151NB-I00. Spanish National R&D&I plan. PI: L. Santamaria. Budget: 308,750 €.
2. Water-based solutions for carbon storage, people and wilderness (WaterLANDS). Ref. H2020-LC-GD-2020-3. EU-H2020. 32 partners. Coord.: S. McGuinness. PI at EBD-CSIC: L. Santamaría. Total budget: 23,068,483 €. Budget for EBD-CSIC: 381,276 €. 2021-2026.
3. 2020-2022 Sustainability for Mediterranean Hotspots in Andalusia: integrating LifeWatch ERIC. Coord.: PI of WP3 at EBD-CSIC: Eloy Revilla. Total budget: 13,375,825 €. Budget for WP3 at EBD-CSIC: 932,419 €.
4. Sustainable livestock production in protected areas with high inter-annual variation in plant productivity: cows, horses and deer in Doñana National Park (GRAZE). Ref. CGL2016-81086-R. Spanish National R&D&I plan. PI: L. Santamaria. Budget: 93,170 €. 2016-2020.
5. Nature-based solutions for pest control in oak forests. Ref. GOP2I-SE-16-0039. EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, European Commission. PI: S. Díaz, Rendimiento Verde SL. Budget: 289,745 €. 2018-2019
6. Earth observation techniques to estimate acorn production in oak dehesa farms. Ref. GOP2I-SE-16-0054. EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, European Commission. PI: S. Díaz, Rendimiento Verde SL. Budget: 159,154 €. 2018-2019.
7. Adaptive management of animal production in dehesa systems. Ref. GOP1I-SE-16-0010. EIP-AGRI Operational Groups, European Commission. PI: S. Díaz, Rendimiento Verde SL. Budget: 4,800 €. 2018.
8. Improvement of the Long-Term Monitoring and Research Infrastructure (ICTS-Doñana). Ref. SIC15-CE-3418. Spanish Ministry of Economy. PI: L. Santamaría. Budget: 191,561 €. Period: 2017-2018.
9. Protection of key ecosystem services by adaptive management of climate change endangered Mediterranean socioecosystems (LIFE-ADAPTAMED). EU-LIFE (Climate Change Adaptation). 6 partners. PIs for EBD-CSIC: L.Santamaría & J. Bustamante. Total budget: 2.5 M€. Budget for EBD-CSIC: 270.556 €. Period: 2015-2020.
10. Improving future ecosystem benefits through earth observations (ECOPOTENTIAL). EU-H2020. Project Coordinator: A. Provenzalle, CNR, Italy. PI for EBD-CSIC: J. Bustamante. Total budget: 15,993,931 €. Budget for EBD-CSIC: 319,495 €. Period: 2015-2018
11. Does native-community diversity determine the success and impact of biological invasions? Spanish National plan for R&D&I. PIs: E. Angulo and L. Santamaria. Budget: 75,000 €. Period: 2014-2017
CONTRACTS, technological or transfer merits
1 Service contract to ‘design, implement and report on a system to evaluate the impact of human activity on the biodiversity of the Montegancedo Campus (Madrid Polytechnic University)’. Signatories: Antonio Hidalgo (UPM) and Eloy Revilla (EBD-CSIC). PI: Luis Santamaría. Budget: 12500 €. Period: 2021-2023.
OTHER MERITS (last 10 years)
Institutional responsibilities
Scientific coordinator of Doñana’s Long Term Monitoring Program (2015-2022).
Head of the Department of Wetland Ecology of EBD-CSIC (2015-2020).
Member of the Animal Welfare Committee of EBD-CSIC (2014-2022).
President of the Spanish Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology (AACTE) (2006-8 and 2012-present).
Member of the Spanish Committee of Future Earth (since 2014).
Member of the Steering Committee (Junta Rectora) of Cádiz Bay Natural Park (2015-2021).
Scientific and evaluation panels
External evaluator for:
- EC’s Horizon Europe (2021 and 2022)
- Spanish Research Agency (AEI), national R+D+I program (2019-23).
- Spain’s Ministry of Universities’ Requalification Program (2021).
- Argentina’s Scientific and Technological Research Fund FONCyT (2020 and 2021)
- the Special Research Program (SFB) of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), in 2018
- Spain’s National Evaluation Agency (ANEP) in 2008-2015.
- Spanish Foundation for Science & Technology FECYT, in 2014-2017 and 2020-2022.
Graduate and post-graduate training
2020-22. Lecturer. Training course in animal welfare for the use of wildlife for scientific research (ECC/566/2015). EBD-CSIC.
2018-23. Invited lecturer. Master in scientific, medical and environmental communication. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
2020. Invited lecturer. MSc programme ‘Applied Conservation Genetics with Wildlife Forensics’. The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
