Dr. Heike Schwermer

Since November 2020, Heike Schwermer is a research associate at the Center for Ocean and Society and works in the balt_ADAPT project. She organizes the cooperation with stakeholders of the Western Baltic system.

She studied geography as well as marine biology at the University of Hamburg. After she graduated from the master’s program marine ecosystem and fisheries science, she completed her PhD in the field of transdisciplinary research, focusing on the Western Baltic fisheries system. She received a scholarship from the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) to conduct her doctoral thesis.

Additionally, she was able to gain a lot of experience outside of science, for example, the assessment of fish stocks in the context of the WWF Fish Guide. She also coordinated a project of NABU Greifswald (Change of Perspective - Protection and Sustainable Use of the Greifswald Bay), which dealt with conflicts and future perspectives of the herring fisheries in the Greifswald Bay.

Current research question

• How are system, system components and their interactions perceived and described by different user and interest groups? (Investigation of multiple resource and spatial conflicts).

• How can society, policy and science jointly contribute to sustainable management of e.g. fish stocks? (Research on risks and adaptation in a social-ecological system).