Meet the MISSION ATLANTIC Scientists: Mette Skerne-Mauritzen, Lead on Atlantic Ocean Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (WP1)

Where you are from and where you are currently based?

I am Norwegian and live in Norway. I am based at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway.

Academic background and research areas:

I have a master's on rodents, a PhD on polar bears, and now work mostly on marine ecosystems; on how to assess the trends and state of marine ecosystems to support ecosystem-based management.

My key research foci are combined effects of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems’ structure, function, resilience, and robustness. Also, I am very much involved in advisory groups for the Norwegian cross-sector management plans for the Barents, Norwegian, and North Sea, working closely with other Norwegian marine science institutes and management bodies on strengthening both the scientific knowledge and knowledge transfer to support decision making and further development of these plans.

Role in MISSION ATLANTIC:

In MISSION ATLANTIC, I lead WP1 on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment frameworks. It has been an exciting and demanding process, from the start of the project discussing what frameworks to use, until now, where we have very nice, comparable results on key sectors, pressures and impacted ecosystem components for each of the seven case studies spread across the Atlantic. Recently, we had a workshop to present and discuss all these results. I look forward to exploring case study commonalities and specificities, and to further discuss research priorities in trying to tackle the challenging assessments of cumulative impacts across sectors on marine ecosystems.

Any advice you would like to share? Or do you have a favourite quote?

‘Never waist a good crisis’ by Winston Churchill. I hope for more climate-smart everyday solutions following covid.

Favourite ocean fact:

Sea ice is a massive habitat, covering about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's oceans.

Highlight from the project so far:

There are many highlights! It has been very nice getting to know new and motivated scientists across the Atlantic and experiencing strong collaboration on highly complex issues that continuously progress the quality of our work, both in MISSION ATLANTIC and outside.

Contact details:

Email: mettem@hi.no