Antonio Gómez Sal

Professor of Ecology at the University of Alcalá since 1994

Biography

Professor of Ecology at the University of Alcalá since 1994. He was lecturer at the Complutense University,
Madrid (1977-1986) and Senior Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, CSIC (1986-94), he has
been Director of the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology, CSIC (1990-94). Founding Secretary (1987-1991) and second
President of the Spanish Association of Terrestrial Ecology -AEET_ (1991-1995), member of the Scientific Board
of the European Ecological Federation (EEF), Secretary for Spain of the Scientific Committee of Problems of
Environment (SCOPE, ICSU 1990-1994), collaborator of the Spanish Committee of the Man and Biosphere
programme (MaB Unesco) (1987-1992) and international consultant for the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) (2004-2021), UN Environment (UNEP) (2019-2021) and FAO (2018-21). Vice-Rector for
Campus and Environmental Quality of the University of Alcalá (2002-2006) and Rector’s Delegate for the
External Campus and Environmental Quality of the UAH (2006-11). He organised the constitutive Congress of
the Spanish Association of Landscape Ecology (AEEP-International Association of Landscape Ecology, IALE
Spain; 2003), acting as Secretary of the Direction Board. He is currently (since 2017 ) President of AEEP-IALE
Spain. He is Vice-President of the González Bernáldez Foundation for Natural Spaces.

RESEARCH

His research objectives includes community ecology and landscape ecology (succession, grasslands,
agroecosystems, vegetation-herbivore dynamics). Interested in the confluence between disciplines (nature,
society, development), the scientific approach to sustainability is also one of his main areas of interest, with
original approaches and models for their evaluation.

A. Gómez Sal’s research profile is open, motivated by the field of humanised ecosystems, and incorporating
approaches that have to do with resources sustainability. A good number of his works are exploratory and
initiate lines. For example, Vegetatio, 1986, 67,33-43, was one of the first to consider the use of functional
traits for vegetation dynamics; an approach later become a very productive field of research. J. Range Manage.,
50(1): 85-93) proposed a method to relate the spontaneous behaviour of herbivores to the composition of
communities and habitats. Human Ecology, 36: 291-300) for the first time addresses the joint study of cultural
and ecological aspects in the agroecosystems known as patios in Latin America. The relationship between
domesticated biodiversity and wild biodiversity has been explored in recent works (2020 Sci Rep, 10, 21035;
2020 Diversity and Distribution, 26), opening up a far-reaching line of research. Among the most cited papers
of AGS, Ecological Modelling 168 (2003), initiates a research related to the multidimensional and integrated
analysis of sustainability (some 150 citations for a methodological work). A constant in his research (from
Landscape Ecology, 1(4); L’Espace geographique, 2: 115-18, 1988 to Biotropica. 35 (5): 601-609,2007 and
Biotropica. 45: 18-26, 2013); has been to manage the landscape ecology scale and methods. In his role as
president of IALE Spain, he has led the organisation of the several Iberian ( Spain and Portugal) Congress of
Landscape Ecology.

He has more than 250 publications in scientific journals and collective books (including Spanish scientific
journals and specialised disclosure) and such as some 50 technical studies and 35 popular and opinion articles.
He has six recognised research periods (sexenios), 17 PhD theses, as well as some 30 master’s theses (TFM) in
Spain and America. As complementary indicators the H index, 30; total citations, 2600, citations since 2018:
875(from Google Scholar). In general, his papers are signed by between one and four authors, with AGS
appearing as the first or last signatory.

He has carried out his research at: UCM, CSIC, UAH and stays in Montpellier (CEFE, Fr), Imperial College (Ascot,
UK), Alterra (Wageningen, PB), Bragança (P), INSTEC and IES (Havana, Cu), Universities of Tunja, Medellín and
Bucaramanga (Co), Katowice (P), El Salvador (San Vicente, ES) and UNAN (León, Nicaragua).
He has obtained grants for his research in the programmes of General Promotion of Knowledge (DGICYT),
National Plans (CICYT), EU Programmes, Integrated Actions, MaB Programme, UNDP, FAO, AECID, CYTED and
Research Programmes of different autonomous communities. In total, he has participated in some 45 research
projects or contracts, in 80% of them as leading researcher.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND SCIENTISTS TRAINING .

Honorary Visiting Professor in Cuba, university of La Habana (appointed from 2013, by the Ministry of Science,
Technology and Environment) and Agrarian (2023), corresponding academic of the Cuban Academy of Sciences
(2023)and Honorary Professor the International University of Andalusia, since 2015.
He was director of the PhD Programme in Environment at the UAH and of the PhD Programme on Global
Change and Sustainable Development, the latter with recognition of Excellence (Community of Madrid) and
Quality (Ministry of Education).

At the University of Alcalá he teaches in the Faculties of Biology, Health Biology, Environmental Sciences and
the School of Architecture. He frequently gives lectures on topics of his speciality (resource management and
conservation, sustainability assessment). Currently AGS participates in three master’s courses, coordination
modules, in different universities.

From his position as Vice-Rector of Campus and Environmental Quality, he was responsible for the proposal
and creation of the Observatory of Sustainability in Spain, through an agreement with the Biodiversity
Foundation and the Ministry of the Environment, being President of the Scientific Committee of the OSE,
during its years of validity from 2004 to 2013. He promoted the Environmental Quality Programme of Alcalá
University for the application of advanced management in environmental issues and the Environmental
Excellence programme for Development, relating to the role of the university as a promoter of quality
environmental policies in its territorial sphere of influence. As a result of his work as Vice-Rector and Delegate
for Environmental Quality at the University of Alcalá (2002-11), in 2012 the University of Alcalá reached first
place among Spanish universities and one of the first in Europe in the international Green Metric ranking on
the sustainability of universities, and since then has remained prominent in this index.
International consultant for the United Nations Programmes (UNDP-GEF) (2004-2019), and UN Environment
(UNEP), recently (2018-21) he has also acted as a consultant for FAO (United Nations) in Cape Verde (Building
Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of the agroforestry sector).

It is worth mentioning his work in scientists training , both in the direction of PhD theses and master’s theses.
From 1998 to 2016 he has directed postgraduate studies in Central America (UNAN León (Nicaragua) and UES
El Salvador), two editions of the Master in Natural Resources Management and Environmental Planning. He
proposed and coordinated the Inter-University Programme for Sustainable Local Development in Central
America, which establishes permanent collaboration and synergy between universities in different countries.
Within this programme, he has been the Academic Director of the Inter-University Master in Sustainable Local
Development, two editions.

Since 2019 he has been collaborating on projects in the Community of Madrid and the companies TRAGSA and
REE, on the vegetation control through grazing and the creation of resilient grasslands and landscapes with a
firebreak role.