Sara Todorović

Dr. Sara Todorović is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) in Bremen, Germany, affiliated with Programme Area 4 – Ecosystem Co-Design towards a sustainable Anthropocene and the Working Group Geoecology and Carbonate Sedimentology. Her work bridges marine biology, climate science, and fisheries policy, with emphasis on reconstructing historical ocean conditions using coral records to address contemporary climate challenges.

Education

• Doctoral Candidate, Witnesses to the Climate Emergency: Ocean acidification crisis (OASIS) (Working Group Coral Climatology, ZMT, Bremen), 2019–Present
• Erasmus Mundus Joint MSc Marine Environment and Resources (MER) (University of Southampton, UK; Universidad de País Vasco, Spain; Université de Liège, Belgium), 2015–2017
• BSc Ecology (University of Belgrade, Serbia), 2010–2014

Research Interests

Todorović specializes in marine paleoclimatology using coral archives to reconstruct sea surface temperature, salinity, and pH across centuries. Her work integrates big data analytics and GIS to model climate phenomena like ENSO and PDO, while addressing practical applications in fisheries management and ocean acidification mitigation. Key focus areas include:

• Reconstructing pre-industrial ocean chemistry using Pacific coral cores
• Linking coral proxy data to climate variability in the South Pacific Convergence Zone
• Developing ecosystem-based frameworks for Atlantic tuna fisheries under ICCAT
• Quantifying carbon uptake dynamics in tropical oceans

Publication Trends

Her 2018–2019 publications reveal a cohesive research trajectory centered on ecosystem-based fisheries management for highly migratory species. She has pioneered ecoregion delineation methodologies for Atlantic and Indian Oceans, translating paleoclimatic insights into actionable policy frameworks for international commissions like ICCAT and IOTC. Her work consistently bridges empirical coral science with operational management tools.

Grants and Projects

• Lead researcher on the OASIS project (Witnesses to the Climate Emergency: Ocean acidification crisis), funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the 'Make Our Planet Great Again' initiative (Grant #57429626)
• Project supervised by Dr. Henry C. Wu with implementation through DAAD, aiming to produce the first globally distributed pH reconstruction of tropical oceans using coral archives

Research Environment

Based at ZMT’s Bremen headquarters (Fahrenheitstr. 6, Room 1302), Todorović operates within the Coral Climatology group under the Geoecology and Carbonate Sedimentology Working Group. Her research leverages ZMT’s coral core collection and paleoclimate laboratories to generate high-resolution environmental reconstructions critical for climate prediction models.