Limnetica 34

The plenary session of the XVI Asociación Ibérica de Limnología (AIL) congress was devoted to remembering Professor Margalef on the occasion of the 10^th anniversary of his death. Based on the main theme of the congress, i.e., "Understanding the resilience of aquatic ecosystems, basis for a sustainable future", I take the occasion to review the main ideas about ecology according to Margalef using as key words the concepts of stability, resilience and sustainability. I analyse the use of those terms by Margalef in his writings and especially in the six major books he published during his life. I also examine how those terms have been used since 1997 (the date of his latest book) in the journals Ecology and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. In the 1970s, Margalef published several papers discussing the term stability in ecology; however, towards the end of his life, he completely abandoned its use. Neither resilience nor sustainability played important roles in his writings. None of these three words relate to his ideas of ecology, despite the fact that they are currently used in ecology and environmental sciences. I conclude that today, much of Margalef’s work is ignored by ecologists, and this omission is partly due to their personal views of what ecology should be.