[Biography, english version]

Isaac Garrido Benavent (Quatretonda, 1988) has a degree in Biology from the Universitat de València (2011), a Master in Biodiversity-Botany Specialty from the University of Barcelona (2012), and a PhD in Biological Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2017). The PhD stage was sustained with the help of a University Teacher Training Grant (FPU), enjoyed at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, which belongs to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He is currently a 'Profesor Permanente Laboral' at the Department of Botany and Geology of the Faculty of Biological Sciences of the University of Valencia (2020). He is co-IP of a Knowledge Generation research project of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and has participated or participates in the research and work team of other six projects, highlighting one of National Parks (2023), a PROMETEO (Generalitat Valenciana, 2021), one related to Citizen Science (LiquenCity, FECYT, 2018) and another funded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, 2021). His research encompasses different approaches to the diversity, taxonomy, phylogeny and phylogeography of lichenized fungi (lichens) and non-lichenized fungi, as well as lichenized algae, from Antarctic, bipolar and Mediterranean environments, which has resulted in 81 scientific publications in national and international journals, with approximately 50% indexed and 60% open access. He has also authored 76 contributions to national and international congresses, conferences and workshops. He collaborates with different national (MNCN-CSIC, RJB-CSIC) and international research groups from several European countries, Canada and China. He is a reviewer for numerous scientific journals, such as Journal of Biogeography and Microbial Ecology. He is also a reviewer of scientific projects and PhD grant proposals for the Spanish Research Agency (AEI) since 2018, as well as Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) postdoctoral contracts. He is a member of the scientific committee and editor of the Bulletin of the Societat Micològica Valenciana (SOMIVAL). He has taught courses on mycology and phylogeny in academic and sociocultural settings, and has been a guide in mycological excursions. Finally, and as the most significant contribution to the advancement of knowledge on the biodiversity of fungi and algae, he has been the author in the description of 22 new species of fungi and algae, from the Mediterranean to Antarctica, and also for these groups of organisms, a new order, four new genera, a new section and four new combinations.

Juan Abella is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany and Geology at the Universitat de València. He obtained his PhD in Palaeontology from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and has conducted research at institutions including the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, and the Universidad Estatal Península de Santa Elena (Ecuador), where he also worked as a lecturer and researcher.

His research focuses on evolutionary palaeobiology and the comparative and functional anatomy of carnivorous mammals, particularly ursids and other fossil Carnivora. He has participated in numerous national and international research projects and has led several palaeontological field campaigns that resulted in the discovery of new fossil vertebrate species.

He has authored more than fifty scientific publications, most of them in leading international peer-reviewed journals, and has carried out research stays at major museums and research institutions in the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic.

Pascual López-López is Associate Professor of Ecology at the Department of Microbiology and Ecology of the University of Valencia and researcher at the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (ICBiBE), where he leads the Movement Ecology Lab.

His research focuses on movement ecology, spatial ecology and conservation biology, with a particular interest in the study of threatened raptors. Throughout his career, he has conducted research aimed at understanding how environmental conditions, landscape structure and human activities influence movement patterns, space use, habitat selection and population dynamics of wildlife. His work integrates high-resolution telemetry and bio-logging technologies, remote sensing, geographic information systems, spatial modelling and advanced demographic analyses.

Since 2006, he has participated in numerous research projects related to movement ecology and vertebrate conservation, conducting studies in several European and Latin American countries. His main research interests include the spatial ecology of large raptors, dispersal and migration processes, ecological connectivity, the dynamics of threatened populations and the assessment of impacts associated with human infrastructures, particularly in the context of the energy transition and the expansion of renewable energy.

His research combines both fundamental and applied approaches with the aim of generating scientific knowledge that supports biodiversity conservation and evidence-based decision-making. In this context, he has led and participated in numerous competitive research projects and knowledge-transfer contracts with public administrations, conservation organisations and energy-sector companies, contributing to the development of measures aimed at reducing impacts on wildlife and improving the management of threatened species.

He is the author of more than one hundred scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, has presented his work at more than one hundred national and international conferences, and regularly collaborates with research groups from different countries. He also maintains an active editorial role as Associate Editor and scientific reviewer for several international journals specialising in ecology, zoology and conservation.

In the field of teaching, he lectures in undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to ecology, biodiversity conservation, endangered species management and movement ecology. He has supervised five PhD dissertations, as well as numerous master's and bachelor's theses, contributing to the training of new generations of researchers and professionals in environmental and biological sciences.

His research pursues a common goal: understanding how organisms respond to a constantly changing environment and applying this knowledge to the development of effective strategies for biodiversity conservation.

Dr. Francesc Mesquita Joanes is a full professor of Ecology at the University of Valencia, and head of the lab of Ecology and Biogeography of Aquatic Systems at the "Cavanilles" Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology. He obtained an extraordinary PhD award with a thesis on population and community ecology of freshwater ostracods, supervised by professors M. R. Miracle and A. Sanz and defended in 1998. After a postdoctoral stay over a year at the Dep. of Geography, University of Hull (UK), where he worked with Huw I. Griffiths on ostracod palaeoecological applications, he obtained an assistant professorship post in Ecology at the University of Valencia in 2000 (later promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2022), where he has been teaching topics related to Ecology, Biogeography and Biodiversity, both at the undergraduate level and to master students. He has participated in or has coordinated multidisciplinary projects and has supervised PhD theses on palaeoecology and environmental change, evolutionary ecology of reproductive strategies (sexual/asexual), biological invasions, applied limnology, and diversity, conservation, ecophysiology and taxonomy of freshwater ostracods. Regarding his international achievements, he has participated as the Spanish coordinator in the EU-funded project SEXASEX, directed by K. Martens (Belgium), organized a pan-European sampling campaign and published several articles. He has also collaborated in a NERC (UK) project on genomic responses to climate change, with R. Snook, R. Butlin y K. Gaston, and in several other recent EU-funded projects coordinated by Prof. Antonio Camacho. Furthermore, he has done research stays longer than a month in several research organizations in the UK, Belgium, Japan, Argentina, Canada and Thailand, and has been an invited speaker in several international symposia. At present he is principal investigator of a research project funded by the Spanish Government (AEI), on the spatial scale effects on biodiversity in all groups of organisms in aquatic systems, focusing on ricefields, with co-PI M.T. Antón-Pardo, and also participating F. Palero and R. Ortells. Prior to this, he was PI of other AEI research project on the study of metacommunity ecology of aquatic systems or stress effects of salinity and temperature in crustacean metabolism. In the metacommunity framework he has studied temporary ponds in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (with C. Rojo, J. Armengol, M. Sasa and J. Monrós), shallow salt lakes (with A. Camacho), interdune ponds (with J. Armengol and J. Rueda) and Thai water bodies (with S. Savatenalinton). As a result of his last research projects as PI, on aquatic biodiversity and metacommunity ecology, he published, in collaboration with outstanding researchers including Anne Magurran (Univ. East Anglia), Robert D. Holt (Univ. Florida) or Pedro Peres-Neto (Concordia Univ.) several articles in prestigious journals such as Ecology and Limnology & Oceanography, and book chapter reviews on tropical wetland metacommunities or ostracod ecology and biodiversity.

[Biography, english version]