Postdoctoral scientist

Phone: (34) 93 230 95 00

Clara Ruiz-González

I am interested in understanding the links between prokaryotic diversity and function in aquatic ecosystems, as well as in exploring how the connectivity and the dispersal of microbes between local communities or ecosystems may influence such links. In order to address thesequestions, I use different methods and approaches, such as single-cell techniques or Illumina sequencing, and I have worked in ecosystems as different as rivers, lakes, soils, groundwater, estuaries and the ocean.

I did my PhD at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona (Spain, 2006-2011), during which I explored the role of solar radiation as a regulator of the uptake of organic carbon by marine bacterioplankton communities using culture-independent techniques (e.g. MAR-CAR-FISH, flow cytometry cell sorting). During my postdoctoral experience, I moved my focus to the study of freshwater bacterial communities through the use of high throughput sequencing technologies, first at the University of Girona (Spain, 2011-2012),where I investigated the effects of dams on riverine bacterial communities, and during almost three years across complex boreal aquatic networks from Quebec at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada, 2013-2015). Currently, I am back at the ICM working on the biogeography and dispersal of marine bacteria, trying to gain insight into some of the factors that determine the structure of marine microbial communities at boththe local and the global scale, as well as their connectivity with the surrounding continental habitats.In summary, my scientific experience has been consolidating between research fields that not always communicate, such as limnology, oceanography and theoretical ecology. This trajectory has provided me with a rare balance between these disciplines that I try to maintain in my current research.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

Bacterioplankton dynamics driven by inter-annual and spatial variation in diatom and dinoflagellate spring bloom communities in the Baltic Sea (2020)

M.T. Camarena-Gómez, C. Ruiz-González, J. Piiparinen, T. Lipsewers, C. Sobrino, R. Logares, K. Spilling

Limnology and Oceanography. DOI: 10.1002/lno.11601

Rapid shifts in methanotrophic bacterial communities mitigate methane emissions from a tropical hydropower reservoir and its downstream river (2020)

P.C.I. Reis, C. Ruiz-González, S. Crevecoeur, C. Soued, Y.T. Prairie

Science of the Total Environment 22: 738-751. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141374

Sampling device-dependence of prokaryotic community structure on marine particles: higher diversity recovered by in situ pumps than by oceanographic bottles (2020)

V. Puigcorbé, C. Ruiz-González, P. Masqué, J.M. Gasol

Frontiers in Microbiology 11: 1645. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01645

Major imprint of surface plankton on deep ocean prokaryotic structure and activity (2020)

C. Ruiz-González, M. Mestre, M. Estrada, M. Sebastián, S. Agustí, E. Moreno-Ostos, I. Reche, X.A. Álvarez-Salgado, X.A.G. Morán, C.M. Duarte, M.M. Sala, J.M. Gasol

Molecular Ecology 29: 1820–1838. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15454

Prokaryotic capability to use organic substrates across the global tropical and subtropical ocean (2020)

M.M. Sala, C. Ruiz-González, E. Borrull, I. Azúa, Z. Baña, B. Ayo, X.A. Álvarez-Salgado, J.M. Gasol, C.M. Duarte

Frontiers in Microbiology 11: 918. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00918

Taxonomic differences shape the responses of freshwater aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacterial communities to light and predation (2020)

C. Ruiz-González, M.C. García-Chaves, I. Ferrera, J.P. Niño-García, P.A. del Giorgio

Molecular Ecology 29: 1267-1283. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15404

Disentangling the mechanisms shaping the surface ocean microbiota (2020)

R. Logares, I.M. Deutschmann, P.C. Junger, C.R. Giner, A.K. Krabberød, T.S.B. Schmidt, L. Rubinat-Ripoll, M. Mestre, G. Salazar, C. Ruiz-González, M. Sebastián, C. de Vargas, S.G. Acinas, C.M. Duarte, J.M. Gasol, R. Massana

Microbiome 8:55. DOI: 10.1186/s40168-020-00827-8

Niche separation within aerobic methanotrophic bacteria across lakes and its link to methane oxidation rates (2020)

P. Reis, S. Thottathil, C. Ruiz-González, Y.T.Prairie

Environmental Microbiology 22: 738–751. DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.14877

Large scale biogeography and environmental regulation of methanotrophic bacteria across boreal inland waters (2019)

S. Crevecoeur, C. Ruiz-González, Y.T. Prairie, P.A. del Giorgio

Molecular Ecology 28:4181–4196. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15223

High growth potential of long-term starved deep ocean opportunistic heterotrophic bacteria (2019)

M. Sebastián, M. Estrany, C. Ruiz-González, I. Forn, M.M. Sala, J.M. Gasol, C. Marrasé

Frontiers in Microbiology 10: 760. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.00760

Higher contribution of globally rare bacterial taxa reflects environmental transitions across the surface ocean (2019)

C. Ruiz-González, R. Logares, M. Sebastián, M. Mestre, R. Rodríguez-Martínez, M. Galí, M.M. Sala, S.G. Acinas, C.M. Duarte, J.M. Gasol

Mol Ecol. pp. 0962-1083. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15026

Sinking particles promote vertical connectivity in the ocean microbiome (2018)

M. Mestre, C. Ruiz-González, R. Logares, C.M. Duarte, J.M. Gasol, M.M. Sala

PNAS 115 pp. E6799-E6807. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1802470115.

Soils associated to different tree communities do not elicit predictable responses in lake bacterial community structure and function (2018)

C. Ruiz-González, E. Archambault, I. Laforest-Lapointe, P.A. del Giorgio, S.W. Kembel, C. Messier, C.A. Nock, and B.E. Beisner

FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 94 (8): fiy115. DOI:10.1093/femsec/fiy115

Interactions between hydrology and water chemistry shape bacterioplankton biogeography across boreal freshwater networks (2017)

J.P. Niño-García, C. Ruiz-González, P.A. del Giorgio

The ISME Journal. 10, pp.1755-1766. DOI:10.1038/ismej.2015.226

Landscape-scale spatial abundance distributions discriminate core from random components of boreal lake bacterioplankton (2016)

J.P. Niño-García, C. Ruiz-González, P.A. del Giorgio

Ecology Letters 19, pp. 1506-1515. DOI: 10.1111/ele.12704

Single-cell activity of freshwater aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria and their contribution to biomass production (2016)

M.C. García-Chaves, M.T. Cottrell, D.L. Kirchman, C. Ruiz-González, P.A. del Giorgio

The ISME J. 10: 1579–1588. DOI:10.1038/ismej.2015.242

Terrestrial origin of bacterial communities in complex boreal freshwater networks (2015)

C. Ruiz-González, J.P. Niño-García, P.A. del Giorgio.

Ecology Letters. 18, pp.1198-1206. DOI:10.1111/ele.12499

The quality of organic matter shapes the functional biogeography of bacterioplankton across boreal freshwater ecosystems (2015)

C. Ruiz-González, J.P. Niño-García, J.F. Lapierre, P.A. del Giorgio

Global Ecol. Biogeogr. 24, pp.1487-1498. DOI: 10.1111/geb.12356

Away from darkness: a review on the effects of solar radiation on heterotrophic bacterioplankton activity (2013)

C. Ruiz-González, R. Simó, R. Sommaruga, J.M. Gasol

Front.in Microbiology. 4, pp.131. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00131

Sunlight modulates the relative importance of heterotrophic bacteria and picophytoplankton in DMSP-sulphur uptake (2012)

C. Ruiz-González, R. Simó, M. Vila-Costa, R. Sommaruga, J.M. Gasol

The ISME Journal. 6, pp.650-659. DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2011.118

See all papers

PROJECTS

REMEI – REgulation of the prokaryotic (MEta)genome of a coastal marIne environment: the biological and oceanographic factors determining the presence and biogeochemical function of plankton prokaryotes’

Funding entity: MINECO

Start: 01/01/2016

End: 31/12/2019

PhD & MASTER THESIS SUPERVISED

Effects of submarine groundwater discharge on coastal bacterioplankton communities from the NW Mediterranean (MsC Thesis)

Author: A. Maisetr

Supervisor: C. Ruiz-González

Institution: Universidad del Pais Vasco

Year: 2018

Bacterial biogeography across boreal lakes of Québec: Large-scale drivers of bacterial dominance and rarity (PhD Thesis)

Author: J.P. Niño

Supervisor: C. Ruiz-González, P.A. del Giorgio

Institution: Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Year: 2016

Towards an understanding of the regulation and the ecology of aerobic anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria in lakes (PhD Thesis)

Author: C. García-Chaves

Supervisor: C. Ruiz-González, P.A. del Giorgio

Institution: Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

Year: 2016