Ruben Sommaruga Dr. Dr. h.c., Univ.-Prof.
University of Innsbruck
Department of Ecology
Head of the Research Unit Alpine Freshwater Ecology and the Group:
Lake and Glacier Ecology
Technikerstraße 25, Room 503
A-6020 Innsbruck
T: +43 512 507-51710
Ruben.Sommaruga@uibk.ac.at
Ruben Sommaruga has been Full Professor of Limnology at the Department of Ecology at the University of Innsbruck since 2008, where he also served as Director from 2012 to 2020. He graduated in Biological Oceanography from the Faculty of Sciences in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1989, and obtained his doctoral degree from the University of Innsbruck in 1993. Driven by a strong interest in aquatic sciences, he carried out postdoctoral research at several leading institutes across Europe and undertook multiple research stays in Chile and USA. In 1998, he completed his habilitation in Limnology at the University of Innsbruck.
His research lies broadly within aquatic ecology and he has expertise in (micro)plankton ecology, biogeochemistry, and photobiology. His work spans diverse and often extreme environments, including the Alps, Andes, Himalaya, Bale Mountains, and Greenland. His work continues to advance the understanding of how lakes and their biota, particularly within mountain ecosystems, respond to global environmental changes, with implications for ecosystem functioning and water resource management.
He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Granada, Spain, and Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO). His scientific contributions have been recognized with several prestigious international awards, including the Baldi Memorial Award from the International Society of Limnology (SIL) in 2024, the Recognition of Professional Excellence in Limnetic Ecology by the International Ecology Institute, the Scientific Award from the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Scientific Award for Exceptional Research Achievements from the University of Innsbruck in 2026, among others. In 2025, he was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa degree by his alma mater in Montevideo.
Ruben Sommaruga serves as Editor of Aquatic Microbial Ecology and has previously held editorial roles as Associate Editor of Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences and FEMS Microbiology Ecology. He has also been a member of the editorial boards of Scientific Reports and the Journal of Plankton Research. From 2008 to 2020, he was a member of the Scientific Board of the Austrian Science Fund.
Some selected publications (see all)
1) Sommaruga-Wögrath, S., Koinig, K, Schmidt, R., R. Tessadri, Sommaruga, R., and R. Psenner (1997) Temperature effects on the acidity of remote alpine lakes. Nature 387: 64-67.
2) Sommaruga, R. and F. Garcia-Pichel (1999) UV-absorbing mycosporine-like compounds in planktonic and benthic organisms from a high-mountain lake. Archiv für Hydrobiologie 144: 255-269.
3) Adrian, R., O’Reilly, C. M., Zagarese, H., Baines, S. B., Hessen, D.O., Keller, W., Livingstone, D. M., Sommaruga, R., Straile, D., Van Donk, E., Weyhenmeyer, G.A., and Winder, M. (2009). Lakes as sentinels of climate change. Limnology and Oceanography 54: 2283-2297.
4) Peter, H. and R. Sommaruga (2016) Shifts in diversity and function of lake bacterial communities upon glacier retreat. The ISME Journal 10: 1545-1554.
5) Peter, H., De Meester, L., Jeppesen, E. and Sommaruga, R. (2017) Changes in bacterioplankton community structure during early lake ontogeny resulting from the retreat of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The ISME Journal , DOI: 10.1038/ismej.2017.191
6) Rofner, C., Peter, H., Catalán, N., Drewes, F., Sommaruga, R. and Pérez, M.T. (2017) Climate-related changes of soil characteristics affect bacterial community composition and function of high altitude and latitude lakes. Global Change Biology 23: 2331-2344.
7) Bellas, C. and Sommaruga, R. (2021) Polinton-like viruses are abundant in aquatic ecosystems. Microbiome 9:13.
8) Bellas, C., Hackl, T., Plakolb, M.-S., Koslová, A., Fischer, M.G., and Sommaruga, R. (2023) Large-scale invasion of unicellular eukaryotic genomes by integrating DNA viruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 120(16): e2300465120.
9) Kopejtka, K., Tomasch, J., Kaftan, D., Gardiner, A.T., Bína, D., Gardian, Z., Bellas, C.M., Dröge, A., Geffers, R., Sommaruga, R. and Koblízek, M. (2022) A bacterium from a mountain lake harvests light using both proton-pumping xanthorhodopsins and bacteriochlorophyll-based photosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 119 (50): e2211018119. .
10) Catalán, N., Rofner, C., Verpoorter, C., Pérez, M.-T., Dittmar, T., Tranvik, L., Sommaruga, R., and Peter, H. (2024) Treeline displacement may affect lake dissolved organic matter processing at high latitudes and altitudes. Nature Communications 15: 2640