History

The Plant Physiology Section was created as an autonomous department in 1949, with the original name of Department of Anatomy and Physiology of Plants and Applied Botany. The first professor was Dr. Arturo Caballero López, who headed the department until his retirement in 1989.

The Department was located in the Science Courtyard of the University of Barcelona building in Plaça Universidad. For more than 30 years this was the headquarters for research and teaching, although an important part of the experimental work - then very much focused on field physiology: plant production and crop ecophysiology - was carried out in the Experimental Fields.

In 1983 the Faculty of Biology moved to its new headquarters (renamed the Ramon Margalef building) and, with it, the Department, which moved to its current premises. At that time, the Department's field of action had already been established in the research areas of plant physiology, applied botany, soil science and phytopathology.

In 2015, new laws determined the remodelling of university departments to facilitate coordination and improve the visibility and competence of the departments. As a result, the Department of Plant Philology was merged with the Department of Animal Biology, the Department of Ecology and the Botany section to form the current Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences.