Dr. Lotta Kluger

Since January 2021, Lotta C. Kluger leads the research theme ‘Marine Food Security’ at the Center for Ocean and Society. After studying biology, Lotta C. Kluger complemented her profile with an interdisciplinary master's degree in tropical marine ecology (MSc International Studies in Tropical Marine Ecology) at the University of Bremen. In 2016, she completed her doctorate at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) Bremen and University of Bremen working on the social-ecological sustainability of aquaculture, taking as a case study the Peruvian bay scallop. This was followed by several years of postdoctoral research at the ZMT and the artec Sustainability Research Center (University of Bremen), where she expanded her research on understanding social-ecological dynamics of marine food production (small-scale fisheries, aquaculture). Since 2010, Lotta C. Kluger has carried out field research in Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Panama, and she further collaborates on projects in Indonesia, Ghana, and Mexico.

Being a marine ecologist by training, Lotta C. Kluger increasingly works at the interface of social and natural sciences, combing empirical data with theoretical modeling. While looking at resource management from an ecosystem-modelling perspective, she also conducts qualitative-quantitative social science research to explore resource user’s relation to the coastal-marine space, connectivity in seafood value chains, and dynamics of ocean governance.

Research questions

- What is sustainability of marine food production?

- How can we avoid over-exploitation of marine living resources while sustaining important livelihoods of depending communities?

- How can social-ecological network modelling inform resource management and ocean governance?

- How can resource users and societies cope with and mitigate ever progressing climate change and anthropogenic effects on marine ecosystems and seafood production?