Dr. Bogdan Drugă
Dr. Bogdan Drugă
ICB Cluj Director, Senior Researcher II am an aquatic microbiologist, interested in the impact of global change on phytoplankton and the consequences for aquatic environments. I am also interested in science communication to the general public.
Other roles:
- since January 2025 I serve as an honorary advisor in the Ministry of Education and Research
- since 2022 I am the ISME Senior Ambassador for Romania
Personal website
https://www.bogdandruga.com/
Email:
bogdan.druga@icbcluj.ro
- REASEARCH
- PROJECTS
- PUBLICATIONS
I am an aquatic microbiologist with expertise in phytoplankton ecology and a primary focus on the long-term effects of climate change on these organisms.My research involves:
- Adapting phytoplankton to future environmental conditions, such as higher temperatures, increased CO2 levels, and changing nutrient availability.
- Experiments involving natural communities using mesocosms.
- Study of cyanobacterial blooms, understanding their ecological drivers and toxic potential.
- Using cyanobacteria as soil fertilizer, in combination with different substrates.
- ZeoCyan (2022-2024): using the effluent of wastewater treatment plants to grow cyanobacterial biofilm on zeolite substrate, which can further be used as biofertilizer.
- ADVANCE (2020-2023): adaptive evolution in marine algae under climate change and consequences for ocean services
- AQUACOSM Plus (2020-2024) - Integrating European aquatic research under a single umbrella to create an interdisciplinary and coherent network covering the entire continent.
- Aquacosm CyanoWarm-II (2020): checking the effect of phytoplankton adaptation to high temperature in waters with different nutrient loadings (eutrophic vs oligotrophic)
- Aquacosm TA (2019): testing the competitive abilities of temperature-adapted cyanobacteria in complex natural communities.
- CyanoWarm (2019-2020): adaptive evolution experiments with potentially toxic cyanobacteria.
Selected publications
- Briddon C, Nicoară M, Hegedüs A, Thomas M, Drugă B, 2025. Quantifying evolutionary changes to temperature-CO2 growth response surfaces in Skeletonema marinoi after adaptation to extreme conditions. ISME Communications (in press) Doi: 10.1093/ismeco/ycaf069
- Briddon C, Miclăuș M, Hegedüs A, Nicoară M, Chiriac M-C, Drugă B, 2023. Long-term exposure to elevated temperature leads to altered gene expression in a common bloom-forming cyanobacterium. Limnology and Oceanography, 68 (12): 2654-2667. Doi:1002/lno.12448
- Briddon C, Nicoară M, Hegedüs A, Niculea A, Bellerby R, Eikrem W, Crespo B, Dupont S, Drugă B, 2023. Acclimation to various temperature and pCO2 levels does not impact the competitive ability of two strains of Skeletonema marinoi in natural communities. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10, 1197570. Doi: 3389/fmars.2023.1197570
- Briddon C, Szekeres E, Hegedüs A, Nicoară M, Chiriac C, Stockenreiter M, Drugă B, 2022. The combined impact of low temperatures and shifting phosphorus availability on the competitive ability of cyanobacteria. Scientific Reports, 12 (1): 1-13. Doi: 1038/s41598-022-20580-2
- Drugă B, Ramm E, Szekeres E, Chiriac C, Hegedüs A, Stockenreiter M, 2022. Long-term acclimation might enhance the growth and competitive ability of Microcystis aeruginosa in warm environments. Freshwater Biology, 67 (4): 589-602. Doi: 1111/fwb.13865
- Drugă B, Buda D-M, Szekeres E, Chiş C, Chiş I, Sicora C, 2019. The impact of cation concentration on Microcystis (cyanobacteria) scum formation. Scientific Reports. 9: 3017. Doi: 1038/s41598-019-39619-y
- Drugă B, Ukrainczyk N, Weise K, Koenders E, Lackner S, 2018. Interaction between wastewater microorganisms and geopolymer or cementitious materials: Biofilm characterization and deterioration characteristics of mortars. International Biodeterioration & Biodegradation, 134: 58–67. Doi: 1016/j.ibiod.2018.08.005
- Drugă B, Turko P, Spaak P, Pomati F, 2016. Cyanobacteria affect fitness and genetic structure of experimental Daphnia populations. Environmental Science & Technology, 50: 3416-3424. Doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5b05973