Argentine ecologist
Sandra Myrna Diaz
ForMemRS
(born in 1961) is an Argentine ecologist and professor of
ecology
at the
National University of Cordoba
,
[2]
who has been awarded with the Linnean Medal for her scientific work. She studies the
functional traits
of plants and investigates how plants impact the
ecosystem
.
[3]
Diaz is a senior member of the
National Scientific and Technical Research Council
and the
National Academy of Sciences of Argentina
. She is one of the 1% most cited scientists in the world.
[4]
[1]
She was elected a
Foreign Member of the Royal Society
(ForMemRS) in 2019
[5]
and an international member of the
American Philosophical Society
in 2022.
[6]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Diaz was born in
Bell Ville
in the province of
Cordoba, Argentina
.
[7]
Her parents loved plants and she grew up in a home with big gardens.
[8]
Diaz attended the
National University of Cordoba
and graduated
cum laude
with a biology degree in 1984.
[8]
She decided that she wanted to be an environmental scientist, and chose to pursue graduate research. She remained at
National University of Cordoba
for her doctoral , earning a PhD in biological sciences in 1989.
[9]
She worked with
Marcelo Cabido
and
Alicia Acosta
on plant functional traits.
[8]
During her
PhD
and later research Diaz developed the protocols to support scientists using functional traits to interpret
ecosystems
.
[8]
Diaz was a
fellow
at
CONICET
, the center for ecology and natural resources.
Career and research
[
edit
]
After reading a book by
J. Philip Grime
about the connection between plant strategies, ecosystem processes and environmental factors, Diaz applied to work with him in the United Kingdom.
[8]
In 1991 Diaz joined the
University of Sheffield
as a
postdoctoral research
associate.
[8]
At Sheffield she studied how
plant communities
respond to increasing quantities of
carbon dioxide
(CO₂). She was the first to demonstrate an important feedback between plants and soil microbes under elevated carbon dioxide. She found that, even in the presence of
fertilizer
, weedy plants that grow quickly suffer from heightened levels of carbon dioxide.
[8]
At the same time,
microorganisms
in the soil thrived in high levels of
carbon dioxide
, indicating that there is a competition between plants and soil for
nitrogen
.
[10]
Diaz also showed that slow-growing plants have a more positive feedback mechanism.
[11]
Diaz returned to Argentina in 1993, where she moved back into studying plant traits.
[11]
She was a principal lead author to the chapter on "Rangelands in a Changing Climate: Impacts, Adaptations, and Mitigation" in the 1995 report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
[12]
Diaz founded the Nucleo DiverSus de Investigaciones en Diversidad y Sustentatibilidad.
[13]
She has played an important role in the development and implementation of functional biodiversity.
[13]
As part of CONICET Diaz developed a new methodology to quantify the functional biodiversity of plants.
[14]
This tool allows scientists to evaluate the effect of biodiversity of plants and its impact on ecosystems. Diaz was the first to provide a global picture of the functional diversity of
vascular plants
. She designed a database of tens of thousands of plants, using contributions of 135 scientists.
[8]
[15]
She explored functional trait diversity on plots of land, dividing vegetation into separate sections to simulate changes in climate and land use.
[8]
[16]
She demonstrated that there exists a tradeoff in plant design between the fast acquisition of resources and the conservation of the resources in tissues.
[17]
Plant designs can include the lifetime of their leaves, whether they grow quickly or slowly, how they reproduce and what kind of wood they have.
[8]
In 2016, she presented the global spectrum of plant form and function, the first global picture plant essential functional diversity.
[18]
Diaz is also interested in the interaction between ecology and the
social sciences
, and looks at how societies value and support ecosystems
[8]
and in the relationship between living plants and people. She published a mechanistic framework for connecting functional diversity in 2007, a paper which would go on to win the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
(PNAS) Cozzarelli Prize.
[19]
[20]
She used this methodology in real-world systems, and assembled a team of social scientists and ecologists.
[8]
Social scientists worked with communities to understand what they want from a particular ecosystem, and ecologists studied functional diversity and the relevant ecosystem processes.
[8]
She has spearheaded the inclusive concept of nature’s contributions to people now used by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (
IPBES
) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
[21]
Clarivate Analytics
reported that Diaz was one of the most highly cited environmental scientists in the world.
[4]
She has been a Co-Chair of the Global Assessment of the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
(IPBES).
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25]
[26]
The IPBES Global Assessment was carried out by more than 150 scientists worldwide.
Other activities
[
edit
]
In 2023, Diaz was appointed by
United Nations Secretary General
Antonio Guterres
to the United Nations' Scientific Advisory Board.
[27]
Recognition
[
edit
]
Diaz was listed as one of the
ten people who mattered in science in 2019
by the journal Nature
in their end of year review
[28]
In 2023 she was one of the six women chosen by
Nature
to comment on their plans for
International Women's Day
. The others were
Gihan Kamel
,
Martina Anto-Ocrah
,
Jess Wade
,
Aster Gebrekirstos
and
Tanya Monro
.
[29]
Awards and honours
[
edit
]
Diaz' awards and honours include:
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Sandra Diaz
publications indexed by
Google Scholar
- ^
"Sandra Diaz"
.
scholar.google.com
. Retrieved
12 November
2020
.
- ^
Chapin III, F. Stuart;
Zavaleta, Erika S.
; Eviner, Valerie T.; Naylor, Rosamond L.; Vitousek, Peter M.; Reynolds, Heather L.; Hooper, David U.;
Lavorel, Sandra
; Sala, Osvaldo E.; Hobbie, Sarah E.; Mack, Michelle C.; Diaz, Sandra (2000). "Consequences of changing biodiversity".
Nature
.
405
(6783): 234?242.
doi
:
10.1038/35012241
.
hdl
:
11336/37401
.
ISSN
0028-0836
.
PMID
10821284
.
S2CID
205006508
.
- ^
a
b
"La cordobesa Sandra Diaz, una de las mentes mas influyentes del mundo"
.
Cba24n
(in European Spanish). 28 December 2018
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Anon (2019).
"Sandra Diaz"
.
royalsociety.org
.
Royal Society
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
“All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
.” --
Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies
at the
Wayback Machine
(archived 2016-11-11)
- ^
a
b
The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2022
- ^
"LAVOZ.com.ar | Sandra Diaz"
.
Archivo.lavoz.com.ar
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
Trivedi, Bijal P. (2012).
"Profile of Sandra M. Diaz"
.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
.
109
(29): 11469?11471.
Bibcode
:
2012PNAS..10911469T
.
doi
:
10.1073/pnas.1210043109
.
ISSN
0027-8424
.
PMC
3406846
.
PMID
22761316
.
- ^
"Professor Sandra Diaz"
.
Iinteracademies.org
. Archived from
the original
on 24 March 2019
. Retrieved
19 April
2019
.
- ^
Diaz, S.; Grime, J. P.; Harris, J.; McPherson, E. (1993). "Evidence of a feedback mechanism limiting plant response to elevated carbon dioxide".
Nature
.
364
(6438): 616?617.
Bibcode
:
1993Natur.364..616D
.
doi
:
10.1038/364616a0
.
ISSN
0028-0836
.
S2CID
4272738
.
- ^
a
b
Diaz, Sandra; Cabido, Marcelo (1997). "Plant functional types and ecosystem function in relation to global change".
Journal of Vegetation Science
.
8
(3): 463?474.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1654-1103.1997.tb00842.x
.
ISSN
1100-9233
.
JSTOR
3237198
.
- ^
"Chapter 2: Rangelands in a Changing Climate: Impacts, Adaptations, and Mitigation - AR2 WG2"
(PDF)
.
archive.ipcc.ch
. Retrieved
30 July
2021
.
- ^
a
b
"Sandra M. Diaz | DiverSus group"
.
Nucleodiversus.org
. Retrieved
19 April
2019
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Quetier, Fabien; Caceres, Daniel M.; Trainor, Sarah F.; Perez-Harguindeguy, Natalia; Bret-Harte, M. Syndonia; Finegan, Bryan; Pena-Claros, Marielos; Poorter, Lourens (2011).
"Linking functional diversity and social actor strategies in a framework for interdisciplinary analysis of nature's benefits to society"
.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
.
108
(3): 895?902.
doi
:
10.1073/pnas.1017993108
.
OCLC
720176072
.
PMC
3024663
.
PMID
21220325
.
- ^
Kattge, J.; Diaz, S.; Lavorel, S.;
Prentice, I.C.
; Leadley, P.; Bonisch, G.; Garnier, E.; Westobys, M.; Reich, P.B.; Wrights, I.J.; Cornelissen, C.; Violle, C.; Harisson, S.P.; et al. (2011).
"TRY - a global database of plant traits"
.
Global Change Biology
.
17
(9): 2905?2935.
Bibcode
:
2011GCBio..17.2905K
.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02451.x
.
OCLC
1018986898
.
PMC
3627314
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Symstad, Amy J.; Stuart Chapin, F.; Wardle, David A.; Huenneke, Laura F. (2003). "Functional diversity revealed by removal experiments".
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
.
18
(3): 140?146.
doi
:
10.1016/s0169-5347(03)00007-7
.
hdl
:
11336/39091
.
ISSN
0169-5347
.
- ^
Diaz, S.; Hodgson, J. G.; Thompson, K.; Cabido, M.; Cornelissen, J. H. C.; Jalili, A.; Montserrat?Marti, G.; Grime, J. P.; Zarrinkamar, F. (2004).
"The plant traits that drive ecosystems: Evidence from three continents"
(PDF)
.
Journal of Vegetation Science
.
15
(3): 295?304.
doi
:
10.1111/j.1654-1103.2004.tb02266.x
.
ISSN
1654-1103
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Kattge, Jens; Cornelissen, Johannes H. C.; Wright, Ian J.; Lavorel, Sandra; Dray, Stephane; Reu, Bjorn; Kleyer, Michael; Wirth, Christian; Colin Prentice, I.; Garnier, Eric; Bonisch, Gerhard; Westoby, Mark; Poorter, Hendrik; Reich, Peter B. (January 2016).
"The global spectrum of plant form and function"
.
Nature
.
529
(7585): 167?171.
doi
:
10.1038/nature16489
.
hdl
:
11299/184528
.
ISSN
1476-4687
.
PMID
26700811
.
S2CID
254590851
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Lavorel, Sandra; de Bello, Francesco; Quetier, Fabien; Grigulis, Karl; Robson, T. Matthew (26 December 2007).
"Incorporating plant functional diversity effects in ecosystem service assessments"
.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
.
104
(52): 20684?20689.
doi
:
10.1073/pnas.0704716104
.
ISSN
0027-8424
.
PMC
2410063
.
PMID
18093933
.
- ^
a
b
"Cozzarelli Prize"
.
pnas.org
. Retrieved
19 April
2019
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Pascual, Unai; Stenseke, Marie; Martin-Lopez, Berta; Watson, Robert T.; Molnar, Zsolt; Hill, Rosemary; Chan, Kai M. A.; Baste, Ivar A.; Brauman, Kate A.; Polasky, Stephen; Church, Andrew; Lonsdale, Mark; Larigauderie, Anne; Leadley, Paul W. (19 January 2018).
"Assessing nature's contributions to people"
.
Science
.
359
(6373): 270?272.
Bibcode
:
2018Sci...359..270D
.
doi
:
10.1126/science.aap8826
.
hdl
:
10810/44029
.
ISSN
0036-8075
.
PMID
29348221
.
S2CID
13689076
.
- ^
Masood, Ehsan (22 August 2018).
"The battle for the soul of biodiversity"
.
Nature
.
560
(7719): 423?425.
Bibcode
:
2018Natur.560..423M
.
doi
:
10.1038/d41586-018-05984-3
.
PMID
30135536
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Demissew, Sebsebe; Carabias, Julia; Joly, Carlos; Lonsdale, Mark; Ash, Neville; Larigauderie, Anne; Adhikari, Jay Ram; Arico, Salvatore; Baldi, Andras; Bartuska, Ann; Baste, Ivar Andreas; Bilgin, Adem; Brondizio, Eduardo; Chan, Kai MA; Figueroa, Viviana Elsa; Duraiappah, Anantha; Fischer, Markus; Hill, Rosemary; Koetz, Thomas; Leadley, Paul; Lyver, Philip; Mace, Georgina M; Martin-Lopez, Berta; Okumura, Michiko; Pacheco, Diego; Pascual, Unai; Perez, Edgar Selvin; Reyers, Belinda; Roth, Eva; Saito, Osamu; Scholes, Robert John; Sharma, Nalini; Tallis, Heather; Thaman, Randolph; Watson, Robert; Yahara, Tetsukazu; Hamid, Zakri Abdul; Akosim, Callistus; Al-Hafedh, Yousef; Allahverdiyev, Rashad; Amankwah, Edward; Asah, Stanley T; Asfaw, Zemede; Bartus, Gabor; Brooks, L Anathea; Caillaux, Jorge; Dalle, Gemedo; Darnaedi, Dedy; Driver, Amanda; Erpul, Gunay; Escobar-Eyzaguirre, Pablo; Failler, Pierre; Fouda, Ali Moustafa Mokhtar; Fu, Bojie; Gundimeda, Haripriya; Hashimoto, Shizuka; Homer, Floyd; Lavorel, Sandra; Lichtenstein, Gabriela; Mala, William Armand; Mandivenyi, Wadzanayi; Matczak, Piotr; Mbizvo, Carmel; Mehrdadi, Mehrasa; Metzger, Jean Paul; Mikissa, Jean Bruno; Moller, Henrik; Mooney, Harold A; Mumby, Peter; Nagendra, Harini; Nesshover, Carsten; Oteng-Yeboah, Alfred Apau; Pataki, Gyorgy; Roue, Marie; Rubis, Jennifer; Schultz, Maria; Smith, Peggy; Sumaila, Rashid; Takeuchi, Kazuhiko; Thomas, Spencer; Verma, Madhu; Yeo-Chang, Youn; Zlatanova, Diana (June 2015).
"The IPBES Conceptual Framework ? connecting nature and people"
.
Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability
.
14
: 1?16.
Bibcode
:
2015COES...14....1D
.
doi
:
10.1016/j.cosust.2014.11.002
.
hdl
:
11336/56765
.
- ^
Diaz, Sandra; Pascual, Unai; Stenseke, Marie; Martin-Lopez, Berta; Watson, Robert T.; Molnar, Zsolt; Hill, Rosemary; Chan, Kai M. A.; Baste, Ivar A.; Brauman, Kate A.; Polasky, Stephen; Church, Andrew; Lonsdale, Mark; Larigauderie, Anne; Leadley, Paul W.; van Oudenhoven, Alexander P. E.; van der Plaat, Felice; Schroter, Matthias; Lavorel, Sandra; Aumeeruddy-Thomas, Yildiz; Bukvareva, Elena; Davies, Kirsten; Demissew, Sebsebe; Erpul, Gunay; Failler, Pierre; Guerra, Carlos A.; Hewitt, Chad L.; Keune, Hans; Lindley, Sarah; Shirayama, Yoshihisa (18 January 2018).
"Assessing nature's contributions to people"
.
Science
.
359
(6373): 270?272.
Bibcode
:
2018Sci...359..270D
.
doi
:
10.1126/science.aap8826
.
hdl
:
10289/12219
.
PMID
29348221
.
S2CID
13689076
.
- ^
"Nature's Contributions to People (NCP) - Article by IPBES Experts in Science | IPBES"
.
Ipbes.net
. October 2018
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
"Sandra Diaz | Global Land Programme"
.
Glp.earth
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
UN Secretary-General Creates Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology
United Nations
, press release of 3 August 2023.
- ^
"Nature's 10"
. Nature
. Retrieved
19 December
2019
.
- ^
"Celebrate women in science ? today, and every day"
.
Nature
.
615
(7951): 187. 8 March 2023.
Bibcode
:
2023Natur.615..187.
.
doi
:
10.1038/d41586-023-00670-5
.
PMID
36890375
.
S2CID
257380632
.
- ^
"Sustainability Science Awards ? The Ecological Society of America's History and Records"
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
"Sandra M. Diaz"
.
www.nasonline.org
. Retrieved
30 July
2021
.
- ^
"CISEN4"
.
Geap.com.ar
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
"Galeria de Fotos Premios Konex 2013 - Acto Culminatorio: Ciencia y Tecnologia : KONEX DE PLATINO - BIOLOGIA Y ECOLOGIA - SANDRA DIAZ"
.
Fundacion Konex
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Prof. Sandra Diaz received the "Bernardo Houssay Career Award"
"
.
DiverSus
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Cientificos del CONICET galardonados en los Premios Houssay"
.
Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Honorary membership"
.
British Ecological Society
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Dr. Sandra Diaz, Co-Chair of IPBES Global Assessment awarded 2017 Premi Ramon Margalef d'Ecologia | IPBES"
.
Ipbes.net
. Retrieved
19 April
2019
.
- ^
Gibney, Elizabeth
; Callaway, Ewen; Cyranoski, David; Gaind, Nisha; Tollefson, Jeff; Courtland, Rachel; Law, Yao-Hua; Maher, Brendan; Else, Holly; Castelvecchi, Davide (2018).
"Ten people who mattered this year"
.
Nature
.
564
(7736): 325?335.
doi
:
10.1038/d41586-018-07683-5
.
PMID
30563976
.
- ^
"Joanne Chory and Sandra Myrna Diaz Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research"
.
FUNDACION Princesa de Asturias
. 5 June 2019
. Retrieved
26 October
2019
.
- ^
"Gunnerus Award goes to expert on biodiversity"
.
EurekAlert.org
. Retrieved
20 April
2019
.
- ^
BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards 2020
- ^
"The Kew International Medal: Everything you need to know | Kew"
.
www.kew.org
. Retrieved
8 August
2023
.
- ^
"Ya se conocen los Konex de Platino y Konex de Brillante | Fundacion Konex"
.
www.fundacionkonex.org
(in Spanish)
. Retrieved
3 October
2023
.
- ^
"Sandra Diaz y Gabriel Rabinovich fueron distinguidos con el Premio Konex de Brillante por su rol destacado en Ciencia y Tecnologia"
.
infobae
(in European Spanish). 29 September 2023
. Retrieved
3 October
2023
.
- ^
"The Linnean Medal"
.
The Linnean Society
. Retrieved
8 August
2023
.
|
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Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research
|
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- 1981:
Alberto Sols
- 1982:
Manuel Ballester
- 1983:
Luis Antonio Santalo Sors
- 1984:
Antonio Garcia-Bellido
- 1985:
David Vazquez Martinez
and
Emilio Rosenblueth
- 1986:
Antonio Gonzalez Gonzalez
- 1987:
Jacinto Convit
and
Pablo Rudomin
- 1988:
Manuel Cardona
and
Marcos Moshinsky
- 1989:
Guido Munch
- 1990:
Santiago Grisolia
and
Salvador Moncada
- 1991:
Francisco Bolivar Zapata
- 1992:
Federico Garcia Moliner
- 1993:
Amable Linan
- 1994:
Manuel Patarroyo
- 1995:
Manuel Losada Villasante
and
Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
of Costa Rica
- 1996:
Valentin Fuster
- 1997:
Atapuerca
research team
- 1998:
Emilio Mendez Perez
and
Pedro Miguel Echenique Landiribar
- 1999:
Ricardo Miledi
and
Enrique Moreno Gonzalez
- 2000:
Robert Gallo
and
Luc Montagnier
- 2001:
Craig Venter
,
John Sulston
,
Francis Collins
,
Hamilton Smith
, and
Jean Weissenbach
- 2002:
Lawrence Roberts
,
Robert E. Kahn
,
Vinton Cerf
, and
Tim Berners-Lee
- 2003:
Jane Goodall
- 2004:
Judah Folkman
,
Tony Hunter
,
Joan Massague
,
Bert Vogelstein
, and
Robert Weinberg
- 2005:
Antonio Damasio
- 2006:
Juan Ignacio Cirac
- 2007:
Peter Lawrence
and
Gines Morata
- 2008:
Sumio Iijima
,
Shuji Nakamura
,
Robert Langer
,
George M. Whitesides
, and
Tobin Marks
- 2009:
Martin Cooper
and
Raymond Tomlinson
- 2010:
David Julius
,
Baruch Minke
, and
Linda Watkins
- 2011:
Joseph Altman
,
Arturo Alvarez-Buylla
, and
Giacomo Rizzolatti
- 2012:
Gregory Winter
and
Richard A. Lerner
- 2013:
Peter Higgs
,
Francois Englert
, and
European Organization for Nuclear Research CERN
- 2014:
Avelino Corma Canos
,
Mark E. Davis
, and
Galen D. Stucky
|
|
Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research
|
---|
- 2015:
Emmanuelle Charpentier
and
Jennifer Doudna
- 2016:
Hugh Herr
- 2017:
Rainer Weiss
,
Kip S. Thorne
,
Barry C. Barish
, and the
LIGO
Scientific Collaboration
- 2018:
Svante Paabo
- 2019:
Joanne Chory
and
Sandra Myrna Diaz
- 2020:
Yves Meyer
,
Ingrid Daubechies
,
Terence Tao
, and
Emmanuel Candes
- 2021:
Katalin Kariko
,
Drew Weissman
,
Philip Felgner
,
U?ur ?ahin
,
Ozlem Tureci
,
Derrick Rossi
, and
Sarah Gilbert
- 2022:
Geoffrey Hinton
,
Yann LeCun
,
Yoshua Bengio
, and
Demis Hassabis
- 2023:
Jeffrey I. Gordon
,
Everett Peter Greenberg
, and
Bonnie Bassler
- 2024:
Daniel J. Drucker
,
Jeffrey M. Friedman
,
Joel F. Habener
,
Jens Juul Holst
, and
Svetlana Mojsov
|
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