- > Many experts contributed their specialist knowledge during the compilation of the World Ocean Review 2026. They included, in particular, scientists working at the member institutions of the German Marine Research Consortium (KDM).
Contributors WOR 9
- Ben Boteler
- is a Senior Research Associate in the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) at the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam. He is a political scientist. His research focuses on how innovative governance strategies can help to progress transformative action towards overcoming global challenges such as climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. His current research focuses on the implementation and performance of EU marine policies to reach the goals set out in the EU Green Deal. He explores this issue in various European research projects. In parallel, Ben Boteler – originally from the US – follows the negotiations on the implementation of the UN High Seas Treaty with keen interest: until 2022, he was the co-lead of a project which aimed to facilitate the development of comprehensive, cross-sectoral approaches for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the high seas. > web
- Dr. Christian Buschbaum
- is a marine ecologist and conducts research at the Alfred Wegener Institute Wadden Sea Station Sylt, where he heads the Working Group on Community and Evolutionary Ecology and the AWI North Sea Office. His current research interests include the impacts of invasive marine species on native ecosystems, and large-scale ecological comparisons of species interactions in sedimentary coastal ecosystems. This latter topic has taken him to Asia, Australia, South America and the polar regions. He is currently conducting experimental studies to investigate how climate change is altering species interactions on Arctic shores. Christian Buschbaum believes that as a scientist, he also has a responsibility to protect domestic coastlines and is therefore intensively involved in the Trilateral Wadden Sea Cooperation between the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. He is also the Scientific Lead in the National Neobiota Expert Group, which falls within the scope of the Federal/State Working Group North Sea and Baltic Sea (BLANO) and contributes to the national implementation of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. An expert in non-native species, Christian Buschbaum contributed to the 2022 report Neobiota of the German North and Baltic Sea Coasts (Neobiota der deutschen Nord- und Ostseeküste 2022) – the first publication to provide a complete overview of all non-native marine species in Germany. > web
- Dr. Chhaya Chaudhary
- is a noted expert on marine biodiversity patterns and species diversity distribution. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Marine Ecosystem and Fisheries Science (IMF) at the University of Hamburg, where she is employed as a Research Associate in the Integrative Mapping of Atlantic Protection Areas project. Her research aims to map biodiversity hotspots in the Atlantic Ocean, decode species diversity distribution patterns, and evaluate how climate change reshapes marine ecosystems of the Atlantic high seas. By applying habitat modelling and biodiversity analysis, she projects how climate change may destabilize species distributions and erode hotspot integrity. These insights allow her to anticipate future ecological “winners and losers” of climate change and prioritize regions where conservation interventions could buffer climate impacts. Her approach merges cutting-edge computational tools with decades of biological data to bridge the gap between theoretical ecology and actionable marine spatial planning. > web
- Dr. Christian von Dorrien
- heads the Fisheries and Environment Baltic Sea research area at the Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries in Rostock. A fisheries biologist, he focuses his research on fisheries management in protected areas and ecosystem-based fisheries management. In the Baltic Sea, for example, he has investigated the impacts of Natura 2000 management measures on commercial fisheries in protected areas. He is also involved in the development of methods for monitoring and mitigation of bycatch of protected species. Christian von Dorrien provides advice to the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) on fisheries management in protected areas and mitigation of bycatch of protected species. He also contributes to various expert working groups of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES). > web
- Dr. Bianca Haas
- is an expert in fisheries management and ocean governance at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia, where she is engaged in research and teaching. She was born in Austria. For her PhD, she studied the potential contribution of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) to the Sustainable Development Goals. Her current research focuses on equity concerns in transboundary fisheries management in the Indo-Pacific. Here, she monitors and analyzes the RFMOs’ work on tuna fisheries in the Indo-Pacific and also studies how the new UN High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement) will affect the work of the RFMOs and to what extent they are involved in its implementation. > web
- Dr. Stefan Hain
- heads the Environmental Policy Unit at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven; in this capacity, he serves, among other things, as the AWI’s liaison to the German Environment Agency (UBA), Germany’s competent authority for approving activities in the framework of the Antarctic Treaty. A marine biologist, he completed his doctoral studies at the Alfred Wegener Institute and, since then, has worked at the interface between science and policy for more than 25 years – first as Deputy Secretary of the OSPAR Commission in London and later heading the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Coral Reef Unit in Cambridge, UK. In 2009, he returned to the Alfred Wegener Institute; since then, as the Institute’s environmental policy spokesperson, he has coordinated the AWI’s contributions to various international processes that are potentially relevant for the scientific research carried out at the AWI. In this role, he provides intensive support for efforts to establish a marine protected area in the Weddell Sea in the Southern Ocean and closely monitors international negotiations on the implementation of the UN High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement). > web
- Dr. Uwe John
- is a molecular ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven and is a noted expert on microscopic marine organisms and molecular and genomic analytical techniques. His research often focuses on microalgae, as is the case with his current project in which Uwe John and his team investigate and evaluate the risks associated with more frequent formation of harmful algal blooms in Greenland’s waters as a result of climate change. The purpose of this study is to generate baseline data on biodiversity and species interactions, develop indicators, identify tipping points and determine the potential impacts of harmful algal blooms on local ecosystem functions and services. > web
- Michael Kriegl
- is a marine scientist at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT). Working at the interface between natural and social sciences, he studies the dynamics of social-ecological systems along tropical coasts, combining methods such as network analysis and qualitative system modelling with participatory approaches in order to support knowledge co-production. With a regional focus on Latin America, he collaborates intensively with local stakeholders to investigate social and ecological interactions in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. His aim is to connect scientific knowledge with local realities in order to develop viable strategies for the conservation and management of marine resources. Alongside his research, Michael Kriegl is a passionate advocate for science communication and promoting ocean literacy. > web
- Prof. Dr. Heike Lotze
- is a marine biologist and is engaged in research and teaching at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She has a strong interest in human impacts on marine species and ecosystems and their consequences for the ocean and society today, in the past and into the future. Human activities such as fishing and hunting, habitat transformation and nutrient loading have affected marine resources and shaped their ecosystems for millennia, but have greatly accelerated over time and expanded from inshore regions to the open ocean. In her research, Heike Lotze aims to reconstruct the long-term history of human-induced changes in marine species and ecosystems, and to analyse the causes and consequences of these changes on the structure and functioning of ecosystems today and into the future. She uses a multi-disciplinary approach, integrating data from palaeontology, archaeology, history, fisheries science, ecology, and climate science, and a combination of field surveys and laboratory experiments, literature studies, ecological modelling and the analysis of large data sets. > web
- Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Pörtner
- is a marine biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven. He founded the Department of Integrative Ecophysiology, which he headed until his retirement in 2024. He was also one of the two Co-Chairs of IPCC Working Group II (WGII) during the sixth assessment cycle (2015–2023). Hans-Otto Pörtner has developed groundbreaking theories on how ocean warming, ocean acidification and the increasing lack of oxygen are affecting marine organisms and ecosystems and has produced numerous studies in support of these theories. Two key questions guiding his research concern the molecular, biochemical and physiological mechanisms that affect tolerance, performance and adaptation of marine organisms, and whether and how these mechanisms apply more broadly to all organisms, including humans. His academic papers are now among the most frequently cited publications in climate and marine research. He is an elected member of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) and was appointed to the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) by the German Government in 2020 and 2024. Within the framework of JPI Climate and JPI Ocean, he is co-chairing an assessment of the potential weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and its impacts on the climate and habitats of affected regions. > web
- Prof. Dr. Martin Friedrich Quaas
- is Professor of Economics at the University of Leipzig and Head of the Biodiversity Economics Group at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. He conducts research on the sustainable use of natural resources, often in interdisciplinary collaboration with ecologists. He has published over 100 papers in international journals. He is co-editor of journals such as the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and was a lead author for the methodological assessment of the values of nature for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This report, whose original title is The Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature, was published in 2022. > web
- Dr. Jörn Schmidt
- is a fisheries ecologist and Director for Sustainable Aquatic Food Systems at WorldFish – an international research organization working to improve food security, nutrition and livelihoods through sustainable, equitable, and inclusive aquatic food systems. He previously led the Research Group on Marine Food Security at Kiel University’s Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS) and served as Chair of the Science Committee of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). His research focuses on social-ecological systems and concepts of sustainability in the ocean, fisheries management, science communication, developing practical management advice and working with fishing communities. Jörn Schmidt was one of the German contributors to the United Nations’ Second World Ocean Assessment and is currently involved in producing WOA III, which will be released in early 2026. > web