The BBVA Foundation on Thursday decided to give its prestigious award for climate change to American biologist Christopher Field.

Field is the director of the department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science and a professor at Stanford University. The jury made their decision based on his discovery of the importance of ecosystems and their effective management in the battle against climate change.

"Field's contributed to understanding the interactions between the dynamics of plants and land ecosystems and CO2 released through human activities," the jury said.

"His visionary research on the global carbon cycle demonstrated that projections of future climate require the explicit consideration of land ecosystems and their management," they added.

Field, who was working in the Netherlands when informed of his award, said he was "quite overcome", adding his award was "a recognition for the whole community of climate scientists."

This is the first of a series of awards the Spanish bank's foundation will give during the next two months as part of the sixth edition of its frontiers of knowledge awards.

Last year's winner was Susan Soloman from the Technological Institute of Massachusetts in the United States, who won the award for "having contributed through her investigations to help safeguard our planet," while showing "an example of the use of science for the common good." Endi

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