Clara Ruiz Gonzalez
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514-987-3000, ext 1651
Université du Québec à Montréal
Pavillon des sciences biologiques, SB-2375
2080 St-Urbain
Montréal, Québec
H2X 3X8
Canada
Postdoctoral Fellow
2011 Ph.D. in Oceanography by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain. Dissertation title: ‘Effects of solar radiation on marine bacterial and phytoplankton heterotrophic activities’. Supervisors: Dr. Josep M. Gasol and Dr. Rafel Simó.
2005 B. Sc. Biology at the Faculty of Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
I am interested in the taxonomic composition and functioning of bacterioplankton communities in aquatic ecosystems, including the ocean, rivers, and lakes, as well as in the factors that control and shape bacterial assemblages. During my PhD I studied the effects of solar radiation (and in particular, ultraviolet radiation) on the heterotrophic activity of different taxonomic groups of marine bacterio- and phytoplankton from Mediterranean and polar waters. Part of my postdoctoral research focused on exploring changes in bacterioplankton communities along river gradient interrupted by dams, and since I joined the CARBBAS group in 2013, I have been investigating how the bacterial communities inhabiting complex boreal aquatic networks are assembled, to which extent they are part of regional metacommunities that extend beyond the aquatic environment, and how different environmental and hydrologic drivers interact to shape these complex communities at different spatial scales.
For my research I have worked with single-cell techniques (microautoradiography combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization, flow cytometric cell sorting) as tools to link bacterial identity and function, and a couple of years ago I started using metagenomics for a deeper understanding of the structure and dynamics of these bacterial communities.
Ruiz-González, C., Niño-García, J. P., del Giorgio, P. 2015. Terrestrial origin of bacterial communities in complex boreal freshwater networks. Ecology Letters (DOI:10.1111/ele.12499)
Ruiz-González, C., Niño-García, J. P., Lapierre, J.F & del Giorgio, P. 2015. Organic matter quality shapes the functional biogeography of freshwater bacterioplankton across boreal aquatic ecosystems. Global Ecology and Biogeography (DOI: 10.1111/geb.12356)
Bier, R., Bernhardt, E., Boot, C., Graham, E., Hall, E., Lennon, J., Nemergut, D., Osborne, B., Ruiz-González, C., Schimel, J., Waldrop, M., Wallenstein, M. 2015. Linking microbial community structure and microbial processes: an empirical and conceptual overview (in press FEMS Microbiology Ecology)
Acinas, S.G., Ferrera, I., Sarmento, H., Díez-Vives, C., Forn, I., Ruiz-González, C., Cornejo-Castillo, F.M., Salazar, G. & J.M. Gasol. 2014. Validation of a new CARD-FISH probe for the accurate quantification of marine Bacteroidetes populations. Environmental Microbiology (DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12517)
Ruiz-González, C., Simó, R., Somaruga, R. & Gasol, J.M. 2013. Away from darkness: a review on the effects of solar radiation on heterotrophic bacterioplankton activity. Frontiers in Aquatic Microbiology 4, 131 (doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00131)
Ruiz-González, C., Proia, L., Ferrera, I., Gasol, J.M. & Sabater, S. 2013. Effects of large river dam-regulation on bacterioplankton community structure. FEMS Microbiology Ecology 84, 316–331 (doi: 10.1111/1574-6941.12063).
Galí, M., Simó, R., Vila-Costa, Ruiz-González, C., Gasol, J.M. & Matrai, P. Diel patterns of oceanic dimethylsulfide (DMS) cycling: microbial and physical drivers. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 27, 1-17 (DOI: 10.1002/gbc.20047)
Galí, M., Ruiz-González, C., Lefort, T., Gasol, J.M., Cardelús, C., Romera-Castillo, C., Marrasé, C., Massana, R. & Simó, R. 2013. Spectral irradiance dependence of sunlight effects on plankton dimethylsulfide production. Limnology & Oceanography 58 (2), 489-504 (doi:10.4319/lo.2013.58.2.0489).
Ruiz-González, C., Simó, R., Vila-Costa, M., Sommaruga, R., and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Influence of solar radiation on the relative uptake of DMSP by heterotrophic bacteria and picophytoplankton. The ISME Journal, 6: 560-659 (doi: 10.1038/ismej.2011.118)
Ruiz-González, C., Galí, M., Lefort, T., Sala, M., Sommaruga, R., Simó, R. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Seasonal patterns in the sensitivity to sunlight of bacterioplankton from surface Mediterranean coastal waters. FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 79: 661-674 (doi: 10.1111/j.1574-6941.2011.01247.x)
Ruiz- González, C., Lefort, T., Massana, R., Simó, R. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Diel changes in bulk and single-cell bacterial heterotrophic activity in winter surface waters of the Northwestern Mediterranean Sea. Limnology and Oceanography, 57 (1): 29-42 (doi: 10.4319/lo.2011.57.1.0029)
Ruiz-González, C., Galí, M., Lefort, T., Simó, R. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Annual patterns of light effects on bacterial heterotrophic production in surface Mediterranean waters. Limnology and Oceanography 57 (5): 1376-1388 (doi: 10.4319/lo.2012.57.5.1376)
Ruiz-González, C., Galí, M., Sintes, E., Herndl, G. J., Simó, R. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Effects of solar radiation on Arctic and Antarctic phytoplankton heterotrophic activities. PLoS ONE 7 (9): e45545 (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045545)
Ruiz-González, C., Galí, M., Simó, R. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Sunlight effects on the DMSP-sulfur and leucine assimilation activities of polar heterotrophic bacterioplankton. Biogeochemistry 110: 57-74 (doi: 10.1007/s10533-012-9699-y)
Lekunberri, I., Lefort, T., Romera-Castillo, C., Cardelús, C., Coll-Lladó, M., Ruiz-González, C., Marrasé, C. and Gasol, J. M. 2012. Do different types of phytoplankton blooms generate changes in heterotrophic bacterial structure and dynamics? Marine Ecology Progress Series, 448: 23-37 (doi: 10.3354/meps09480)
Artigas, J., Pérez-Baliero, M.C., Romaní, A.M., Ruiz-González, C., Soley, S. and Sabater, S. 2012. Phosphorus use by planktonic communities in a large regulated Mediterranean river. Science of the Total Environment 426: 180-187 (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.03.032)