“Acceptance Speech” Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2021 in Ecology and Conservation Biology

Acceptance speech by Sandra Lavorel, winner of the 2021 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, who was honored alongside Sandra Díaz and Mark Westoby for their pioneering contributions to the study of plant functional diversity. Their research has linked measurable traits of plant species, such as height, leaves and seeds, to their roles in ecosystems, providing new tools for understanding biodiversity and predicting the effects of climate change.

Lavorel reviews nearly 25 years of collective research aimed at incorporating plant diversity into models of climate–ecosystem interactions. She explains how international collaboration and data sharing led to the creation of the TRY database, a key resource for identifying global patterns in plant traits. She also highlights her research on interactions between plants, pollinators and soil organisms, which he

Acceptance speech by Sandra Lavorel, winner of the 2021 Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology and Conservation Biology, who was honored alongside Sandra Díaz and Mark Westoby for their pioneering contributions to the study of plant functional diversity. Their research has linked measurable traits of plant species, such as height, leaves and seeds, to their roles in ecosystems, providing new tools for understanding biodiversity and predicting the effects of climate change.

Lavorel reviews nearly 25 years of collective research aimed at incorporating plant diversity into models of climate–ecosystem interactions. She explains how international collaboration and data sharing led to the creation of the TRY database, a key resource for identifying global patterns in plant traits. She also highlights her research on interactions between plants, pollinators and soil organisms, which helps explain how environmental changes affect essential ecosystem functions and informs their conservation and sustainable management.