Antonia Klöcker

PhD Candidate in Marine Ecology

I am a marine ecologist, who is curious to better understand the environmental and biological processes that shape the distribution, abundance, and movement patterns of animals and their implications for conservation and management. I am particularly interested in such dynamics in three of the largest and most vulnerable shark species in Norway, the basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), porbeagle (Lamna nasus) and spurdog (Squalus acanthias), which I study in my dissertation project.

As a Ph.D. Candidate in Marine Biology, I support the Deep-water and cartilaginous fish working group at the Institute of Marine Science (IMR) in Tromsø, Norway and am affiliated with the University of Oslo and the Movement Ecology group at the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO) in Porto, Portugal. My dissertation project is part of the collaborative NFR project “Sharks on the Move”, which aims to model species distribution of these three migratory sharks to inform ecosystem-based management under global change.

Methodologically, I combine existing fishery-dependent and independent occurance data and satellite tracking with high-resolution oceanographic models and zooplankton density predictions to generate models predicting distributions of the focal shark species in Nordic waters. These distribution models facilitate a holistic view of how fisheries overlap with shark habitats and space-use. Further, predictions into the future provide insights into how shark distribution and thus interaction hotspots with human activites are likely to change under global warming scenarios. By communicating our results to fisheries, spatial management and the general public, we hope to provide the required knowledge to the leverage change urgently needed in the UN Decade of Ocean Science and Ecosystem Restoration.

When I am not analyzing elasmobranch data or am on fieldwork, I enjoy spending time in the outdoors, whether on skis, on a bike, in a wetsuit or by foot and capturing these moments with a camera.