Lol Dahlet
Report of GLOMAR PhD student Lol Dahlet about her participation in the "ClimEco8 Summer School - Sustaining the Ocean We Need for the Future We Want" in Koper, Slovenia from 19 to 24 June 2023
The first time I applied for a ClimEco summer school was in 2016, when I was finishing my undergraduate studies in oceanography at the University of São Paulo. I was very sad to learn that I had not been selected despite my great motivation to participate. Today, as a PhD student in the Social-Ecological Systems Analysis Work Group at the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), the opportunity to take part in the ClimEco8 summer school was a dream come true. Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) is a global research project addressing key issues of ocean sustainability in the context of global change. Every two years, IMBeR organizes a week-long summer school for early-career researchers, featuring lectures by internationally renowned researchers on topics and methods used to produce cutting-edge research on ocean sustainability. ClimEco summer schools are unique in that they aim to provide participants with a holistic and interdisciplinary understanding of the coastal and marine human-nature interface. Another strong feature of the IMBeR summer schools is the friendly, welcoming environment promoted by the organizers and lecturers, which encourages interaction and networking.
The ClimEco8 summer school, entitled "Sustaining the Ocean We Need for the Future We Want", was held in Koper, Slovenia, from June 19 to 24, 2023. Five main themes were addressed in a highly condensed program spanning six days, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day. These themes were climate change and the world's oceans, marine resource management, marine socio-ecological system modeling, social and economic research methods, and just and equitable ocean futures. All participants were also asked to prepare a poster of their ongoing research, and on Thursday afternoon, the poster session was held at the newly renovated Tiepolo Gravisi Historical Palace of the Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS).
ClimEco8 was a unique opportunity for me to attend a series of interdisciplinary marine science conferences - exactly what I needed to get ideas for my ongoing PhD data analysis, and to get different perspectives that would help me make sense of my results. I also appreciated being surrounded by people who shared the same interdisciplinary interests and personal values. With ClimEco8's organizers and speakers emphasizing the value of diversity, we all sought to contribute to the creation of a truly caring environment.
After these intense days of lectures, we also had a lot of fun! On Monday, we all went for a group dinner in a pizzeria. As Koper is close from the Italian border, one can feel the Italian influence there: pizza, gelato, expresso and Italian words here and there quickly became part of our routine. We also went for a swim on Koper beach, and enjoyed the warmth. On Friday afternoon, we went on a beautiful excursion that took us to the Skocjanski zatok nature reserve, then on to Piran.
I returned to Bremen with the certainty that interdisciplinary marine sciences offer so much potential to explore intertwined social and ecological phenomena, and that there are great people with whom we share research interests and values, as well as the diversity of our backgrounds. If I had to sum up ClimEco8 in a motto, it would be "United in diversity"!
A big thank you to the organizers, lecturers and participants of ClimEco8 for such an amazing week. I am very grateful to GLOMAR for providing me with the necessary funding as to allow my attendance and to the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD / Forschungsstipendien - Promotionen in Deutschland, 2021/22 (57552340)) for the Full-PhD scholarship granted.