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Ecology and Evolution
Austria
2025

D-Index & Metrics

Ecology and Evolution

D-Index
68
Citations
13744
World Ranking
1559
National Ranking
11

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2025 - Research.com Ecology and Evolution in Austria Leader Award

Overview

Ruben Sommaruga is affiliated with the University of Innsbruck in Austria and conducts research primarily within the fields of Environmental Science and Earth and Planetary Sciences. Their scholarly work encompasses various subfields, notably Ecology, Oceanography, Environmental Chemistry, Atmospheric Science, and Molecular Biology.

The research topics explored by Sommaruga emphasize the study of natural ecosystems and environmental processes. Key areas include Marine and coastal ecosystems, Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics, Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology, Fish Ecology and Management Studies, Protist diversity and phylogeny, Biocrusts and Microbial Ecology, as well as Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics.

Sommaruga's recent publications exhibit a focus on aquatic and environmental change, with notable papers such as:

  • Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakes (2021, Nature)
  • Climate change drives widespread shifts in lake thermal habitat (2021, Nature Climate Change)
  • Deeper waters are changing less consistently than surface waters in a global analysis of 102 lakes (2020, Scientific Reports)
  • Scientists' warning of threats to mountains (2022, The Science of The Total Environment)
  • The balance between deterministic and stochastic processes in structuring lake bacterioplankton community over time (2020, Molecular Ecology)

Frequent co-authors collaborating with Sommaruga include Rachel M. Pilla, Michela Rogora, Steven Sadro, Piet Verburg, and Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer.

Sommaruga's work has been published multiple times in several scientific venues, with recurring appearances in:

  • The Science of The Total Environment (3 publications)
  • Microbiome (3 publications)
  • Nature Communications (2 publications)
  • Global Change Biology (2 publications)
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2 publications)

Best Publications

  • Lakes as sentinels of climate change

    Rita Adrian;Catherine M. O'Reilly;Horacio Zagarese;Stephen B. Baines

  • Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakes

    Stephen F. Jane;Stephen F. Jane;Gretchen J.A. Hansen;Benjamin M. Kraemer;Peter R. Leavitt;Peter R. Leavitt

  • The role of solar UV radiation in the ecology of alpine lakes.

    Ruben Sommaruga

  • Attenuation of ultraviolet radiation in mountain lakes: Factors controlling the among‐ and within‐lake variability

    Isabelle Laurion;Marc Ventura;Jordi Catalan;Roland Psenner

  • Mountain lakes: Eyes on global environmental change

    K. A. Moser;J. S. Baron;J. Brahney;I. A. Oleksy

  • Temperature effects on the acidity of remote alpine lakes

    Sabine Sommaruga-WÖgrath;Karin A. Koinig;Roland Schmidt;Ruben Sommaruga

  • Assessment of climate change effects on mountain ecosystems through a cross-site analysis in the Alps and Apennines.

    M. Rogora;L. Frate;M. L. Carranza;M. Freppaz

  • Abundances, Identity, and Growth State of Actinobacteria in Mountain Lakes of Different UV Transparency

    Falk Warnecke;Ruben Sommaruga;Raju Sekar;Julia S. Hofer

  • UV-absorbing mycosporine-like compounds in planktonic and benthic organisms from a high-mountain lake

    Ruben Sommaruga;Ferran Garcia-Pichel

  • Dust inputs and bacteria influence dissolved organic matter in clear alpine lakes

    Natalie Mladenov;Natalie Mladenov;Ruben Sommaruga;Rafael Morales-Baquero;Isabelle Laurion

  • Effect of natural sunlight on bacterial activity and differential sensitivity of natural bacterioplankton groups in northwestern Mediterranean coastal waters.

    Laura Alonso-Sáez;Josep M. Gasol;Thomas Lefort;Julia Hofer

  • ESCAPE FROM UV THREATS IN ZOOPLANKTON: A COCKTAIL OF BEHAVIOR AND PROTECTIVE PIGMENTATION

    Lars-Anders Hansson;Samuel Hylander;Ruben Sommaruga

  • Differential effect of algal- and soil-derived dissolved organic matter on alpine lake bacterial community composition and activity

    María Teresa Pérez;Ruben Sommaruga

  • When glaciers and ice sheets melt: consequences for planktonic organisms

    Ruben Sommaruga

  • Climate change drives widespread shifts in lake thermal habitat

    Benjamin M. Kraemer;Rachel M. Pilla;R. Iestyn Woolway;R. Iestyn Woolway;Orlane Anneville

  • Dietary acquisition of photoprotective compounds (mycosporine‐like amino acids, carotenoids) and acclimation to ultraviolet radiation in a freshwater copepod

    Robert E. Moeller;Shawna Gilroy;Craig E. Williamson;Gabriella Grad

  • Inhibitory effect of solar radiation on thymidine and leucine incorporation by freshwater and marine bacterioplankton.

    Ruben Sommaruga;Ingrid Obernosterer;Gerhard J. Herndl;Roland Psenner

  • Factors influencing bacterial dynamics along a transect from supraglacial runoff to proglacial lakes of a high Arctic glacieri

    Birgit Mindl;Alexandre M. Anesio;Katrin Meirer;Andrew J. Hodson

  • Shifts in diversity and function of lake bacterial communities upon glacier retreat

    Hannes Peter;Ruben Sommaruga

  • Differences in UV transparency and thermal structure between alpine and subalpine lakes: implications for organisms

    Kevin C. Rose;Craig E. Williamson;Jasmine E. Saros;Ruben Sommaruga

  • Changes in UV penetration associated with marine intrusions and freshwater discharge in a shallow coastal lagoon of the Southern Atlantic Ocean

    D. Conde;L. Aubriot;R. Sommaruga

  • The bacterial community composition of the surface microlayer in a high mountain lake

    Paul Hörtnagl;Maria Teresa Pérez;Michael Zeder;Ruben Sommaruga

Frequent Co-Authors

Roland Psenner
Roland Psenner University of Innsbruck
Jordi Catalan
Jordi Catalan Spanish National Research Council
Josep M. Gasol
Josep M. Gasol Spanish National Research Council
Isabelle Laurion
Isabelle Laurion Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Jasmine E. Saros
Jasmine E. Saros University of Maine
Erik Jeppesen
Erik Jeppesen Aarhus University
Craig E. Williamson
Craig E. Williamson Miami University
Jakob Pernthaler
Jakob Pernthaler University of Zurich
Lluís Camarero
Lluís Camarero Spanish National Research Council
Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer
Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer Uppsala University

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