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Microbial worlds and climate futures: An interview with Lise Øvreås, incoming President of EASAC#

In this interview, Professor Lise Øvreås MAE highlights the vast diversity of microbes, their unseen influence on global systems, and the potential of microbial science in tackling environmental challenges.

Lise Øvreås

About Lise Øvreås MAE#

Lise Øvreås MAE is a microbial ecologist and professor at the University of Bergen. Her research focuses on microbial diversity and ecology along environmental gradients, with a particular interest in how climate change affects microbial communities – including the warming of permafrost soils, glacier ecosystems and the Arctic Ocean. She has served as Academic Director of Ocean Sustainability Bergen and as President of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 2021 to 2024.

Most recently, she was appointed President of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and will start this position in January 2025. Professor Øvreås was elected to the Ecology and Evolution section of Academia Europaea in 2022.

Read the interview#

Climate change is often talked about in terms of weather, ice, or wildlife – how are microbes part of this story, especially in the Arctic?

“Microbes play a critical role in climate change because they drive the main biogeochemical cycles, like carbon and nitrogen cycles. Photosynthetic microbes such as cyanobacteria and phytoplankton absorb large amounts of CO₂ from the atmosphere. Soil microbes decompose organic matter, releasing, storing, or converting carbon depending on the conditions. Some microbes even help lock carbon into soils and sediments, acting as long-term carbon sinks.

Certain specialised microbes produce methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), both potent greenhouse gases. Other microbes, like methanotrophs, consume methane, helping reduce emissions. In the Arctic, gigatonnes of carbon are stored in the permafrost. As it thaws, dormant microbes become active, decomposing ancient organic matter and thus releasing CO₂ and CH₄. This creates a positive feedback loop that accelerates warming.”



Can you describe a moment in your career when you realised the true impact of microbial ecology on global systems?

“I started my PhD studies in the early days of applying molecular techniques to microbial ecology studies. This ‘molecular revolution’ in microbial ecology refers to the transformative shift in how scientists study microbes, made possible by the introduction of molecular techniques that let us analyse microbial communities without culturing them in the lab. This revolution has dramatically expanded our understanding of microbial diversity, function, and ecological roles. After applying these techniques, we realised that microorganisms are not only the oldest and most diverse organisms on the planet, but they also represent the vast majority of the Earth’s biodiversity.

The first forms of life were microorganisms, found in fossils from 3.5 – 3.8 billion years ago. For more than 2 billion years, life and evolution on the planet was entirely prokaryotic. Even now, we have only described a small fraction of this diversity. Realising that microbes can live under extreme conditions – and drive those ecosystems – has been key to my understanding of how biodiversity is regulated and sustained.

The number of microorganisms on Earth exceeds the number of higher animals and plants. I’ve been especially fascinated by the microbes that thrive in cold and dark environments, performing crucial processes there. Advances in genomics and metagenomics have revealed the vast diversity and functional importance of microbes in soil, oceans, and the human body. In 2001 the term ‘microbiome’ was introduced, highlighting the importance of microbial communities in human health and the environment.”


Lise sampling ice underneath Foxfonna Glacier at Svalbard
Lise sampling ice underneath Foxfonna Glacier at Svalbard


You’ve held leadership roles in major scientific organisations and your work spans ecology, climate science, and sustainability. How important is interdisciplinary collaboration in tackling today’s environmental challenges?

“Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential for addressing today’s environmental challenges. Issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and resource depletion are complex, interconnected, and global in scale. No single discipline can fully understand or solve these challenges alone. We need to integrate knowledge between ecologists, engineers and social scientists to better understand human behaviour, policy, and governance. We also need economists to assess real costs, incentives, and sustainable development strategies.”


Lise enjoying the Arctic while students sample marine water from Adventfjorden, Svalbard
Lise enjoying the Arctic while students sample marine water from Adventfjorden, Svalbard


Looking ahead, what are you most hopeful about in the field of microbial ecology?

“Microbial ecology is now central to understanding climate change, carbon cycling, and ecosystem resilience. Microbes are invisible to the naked eye, and their importance in ecosystems can be difficult to grasp. Yet, I hope knowledge from microbial ecology will combine with other disciplines to deliver novel solutions, such as biobased materials from extremophiles (enzymes, chemical and pharmaceutical compounds). I hope that we can use this knowledge in climate models to integrate ecological and economic data, and in urban planning that incorporates environmental psychology and green infrastructure.

I also hope that this knowledge will be included in science-for-policy documents and reports, helping to support more evidence-based decisions and foster public trust – in both scientists and decision makers.”


A pingo at Nordenskjøldland, with liquid water on top of the ice. Temperature here is -20°C




The interview was published 21st August 2025 and conducted by the Academia Europaea Cardiff Knowledge Hub.
For further information please contact AECardiffHub@cardiff.ac.uk.

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