Salva is a systems scientist and biogeochemist. He received his PhD in Geosciences (2000) from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), studying the biogeochemistry of semi-arid wetlands. Prior to joining the MNCN (2010), he had a PhD position at the Center for Environmental Sciences (CCMA-CSIC) in Madrid (1997-2000), and later he was postdoc at the Geology Department of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2001) and Visiting Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora (Mexico) as a research fellowship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2002-2003). From 2003 to 2007 Salva was joined to the Instituto Tecnológico de Sonora as Professor and then, in 2007, he held a Senior Researcher position in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), first at the Institute of Natural Resources (IRN-CSIC; 2007-2010) and thereafter at the MNCN. During this time he has worked extensively on biogeochemical processes involved in the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, the impacts of global change, the emission of greenhouse gases and the interaction between ecosystem functioning and structure (food-webs). He was focused on freshwater ecosystems (wetlands, rivers and lakes) but also on transitional ecosystems (mangroves and coastal wetlands). He is very interested in a systems ecology view that encompasses ecological processes and their flows within and between ecosystem compartments. Salva is currently deeply concerned about the chain of complex ecological processes that interact to reduce aquatic GHG emissions, primarily methane, and how these can be incorporated into the management of aquatic ecosystems to encourage carbon sequestration.