Sarah Zwicker

Doctoral Candidate

Phone: +49 (0)421 23 800 - 148

Fax: +49 (0)421 23 800 - 30

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Office: Fahrenheitstr. 8
28359 Bremen
Room: 3114 (1st floor)

Research interests

• Drawing holistic pictures of marine pollution: From source to sink
• Identification of proximate and distal drivers of marine pollution
• Biological monitoring and risk assessment of pollution using bioindicators and biomarkers
• Identification of socio-environmental effects of marine pollution
• Transdisciplinary science


 Research focus

In my research, I aim to paint a holistic picture of wastewater (micro)pollution from the tourism sector on small tropical islands in Indonesia, Tanzania, and Colombia. With an interdisciplinary source-to-sink approach, I identify the origins and drivers of wastewater (micro)pollution in the tourism sector. I track (micro)pollutants such as nutrients or estrogenically active agents transfer from hotel septic tanks to groundwater, coastal waters, and marine organisms. Finally, I investigate their impact on marine invertebrates using histological and endocrine biomarkers. Eventually, I am interested in evaluating the performance of social, environmental, and biological indicators for all steps along this risk assessment pathway.


Current Project

TransTourism - Transdisciplinary Science for Sustainable Tourism

The project TransTourismus aims to support tourism communities in solving the challenges of wastewater management in a transdisciplinary framework, together with various stakeholders from coastal tourism communities in the tropics. The ultimate aim is to support decision-making and suggest solutions for wastewater management through a deliberative and participatory process.