“When you lose species, it’s like burning libraries or bulldozing important monuments”

Awarded the 13th BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Ecology, Mark Westoby reflects on the principles that govern the functional diversity of plants. He explains how strategies such as growth, resistance, and longevity emerge from evolutionary and environmental relationships. His approach has enabled the interpretation of global patterns in plant biodiversity.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category has gone in this thirteenth edition to ecologists Sandra Díaz (Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, and Argentine National Research Council, CONICET), Sandra Lavorel (Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine [LECA], Grenoble, France, and Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand) and Mark Westoby (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia), for “expanding the concept of biodiversity,” through “their pioneering work to discover, describe and coordinate the measurement of plant functional traits.”