He is currently the head of the Biodiversity and Animal Conservation Lab at the CTFC. His research objectives are focused on the study of interactions between agriculture and farmland birds, basically in steppe-land extensive farmland areas. Another main goal of his research is based on the knowledge transfer of conservation biology criteria to stakeholders, and help them to be applied and implement in nature conservation planning. Since 2003, Gerard Bota and his team has developed a close relation with the Catalan regional government dealing and giving advice to regional stakeholders on the conservation planning of the steppe-land species and Natura2000 protected areas in Catalonia.

He had participated in different research projects related to biodiversity, conservation and environmental services in agricultural systems like Biodiversa ERANET projects (FARMLAND, InterRest), project funded by the Fundación General CSIC-Banco Santander (STEPPEAHEAD), lead partner in a INTERREG Europe project (BID-REX ; From Biodiversity data to decions), LIFE Nature (LIFE Connect Ricoti, LIFE AgroForAdapt), etc. He is also co-coordinator of the Sponsored Chair STEPPE FORWARD, focused on research for a development of renewable photovoltaic energies that preserves the biodiversity in the steppe zones.

The research outputs of this and other projects are 47 SCI papers co-authorship published in journals like Conservation Letters, PNAS, Communications, earth & environment, Biodiversity and Conservation, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, Ecological Indicators, Journal of Applied Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, PlosOne, etc. He has been also first editor of the book “Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land birds”  and co-author of different chapters (more than 10) in different international and regional books.

Sanz-Pérez, A., Tarjuelo, R., Giralt, D., Sardà-Palomera, F., Mougeot, F., Santisteban, C., Pérez, M., Bota. G. (2022) High-resolution tracking data highlight the importance of fallow land during a seasonal habitat bottleneck for a steppe-land specialist. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment. Accepted

Serrano-Davies, E., Traba, J., Arroyo, B., Mougeot, F., Casas, F., Cuscó, F., Mañosa, S., Bota, G., Faria, N., Villers, A., Casas, F., Attie, C., Devocoux, P.  Bretagnolle, V., Morales, M.B. (2022) Biased sex ratios in Western Europe populations of little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) as a potential warning signal of unbalanced mortalities. Bird Conservation International. Accepted

Morales, M.B., Díaz, M., Giralt, D., Sardà-Palomera, F., Traba, J., Mougeot, F., Serrano, D., Mañosa, M., Gaba, S., Moreira, F., Pärt, T., Concepción, E.D., Tarjuelo, R., Arroyo, B., Bota, G. (2022) Protect Europe green agriculture policies for future food security. Communications, earth & environment. Accepted

Aroyo, B., Estrada, A., Casas, F., Cardador, L., de Cáceres, M., Bota, G., Giralt, D., Brotons, Ll., Mougeot, F. (2022)  Functional habitat suitability and urbanencroachment explain temporal and spatialvariations in abundance of a declining farmlandbird, the Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax. Avian Conservation and Ecology. Accepted

Bota, G., Traba, J., Sardà-Palomera, F., Giralt, D., Pérez-Granados, C. (2022) Passive acoustic monitoring for estimating human-wildlife conflicts: The case of bee-eaters and apiculture. Ecological Indicators, 142, 109158

Cabodevilla, X., Mougeot, F., Bota, G., Mañosa, S., Cuscó, S., Martínez-García, J., Arroyo, B., Madeira M.J. (2021) Metabarcoding insights into the diet and trophic diversity of six declining farmland birds. Scientific Reports 11,

Lanzas, M., Hermoso, V., Morán-Ordoñez, A., Regos, A., Bota, G., Brotons, LL. (2021) The value of unprotected land for future conservation efforts under dynamic conditions. Biological Conservation, 261

Díaz, M., Concepción, E.D., Morales, M.B., Alonso, J.C:, Azacárate, F.M., …, Bota,G.,…. Velado-Alonso, E. (2021) Environmental objectives of Spanish agriculture: scientific guidelines for their effective implementation under the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2030. Ardeola, 68 (2), 445-460

Sanz-Pérez, A., Sardà-Palomera, F., Bota, G., Sollmann, R., Pou, N., Giralt, D. (2021) The potential of fallow management to promote steppe bird conservation within the next EU Common Agricultural Policy reform. Journal of Applied Ecology, 58(7), 1545-1556

Giralt, D., Pantoja, J., Morales, M.B., Traba, J., Bota, G. (2021) Landscape-scale effects of irrigation on a dry cereal farmland bird community. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 131

Cuscó, F., Bota, G., Llovet, A. Mañosa, S. (2021) Nesting and incubation behaviour of the Little Bustard (Tetrax tetrax) and their relation to hatching success. Ardeola, 68 (1), 95-122

Bota, G., Traba, J., Sardà-Palomera, F., Giralt, D., Pérez-Granados, C. (2020) Acoustic monitoring of diurnally migrating European Bee-eaters agrees with data derived from citizen science. Ardea, 108 (2), 1-11

Sanz-Pérez, A., Sollmann, R., Sardà-Palomera, F., Bota, G., Giralt, D. (2020) The role of detectability on bird population trend estimates in an open farmland landscape. Biodiversity and Conservation, 29, 1747-1765

Alignier, A., Solé-Senan, X.O, Robleño, I., Baraibar, B., Fahrig, L., Giralt, D., Gross, N., Martin, JL., Recasens, J.,  Sirami, C., Siriwardena, G.  Bosem, A., .... Bota, G., ...., Batáry, P. (2020) Configurational crop heterogeneity increases within-field plant diversity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 57 (4), 654-663

Sirami, C., Gross, N., Baillod, A. B., Bertrand, C., Carrié, R., Hass, A., …, Bota, G.,… Fahrig, L. (2019). Increasing crop heterogeneity enhances multitrophic diversity across agricultural regions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (33), 16442-16447