Emergent Ecologies in the
Mediterranean Sea
Photo: Yehuda Perutz
Karin Ahlberg
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CASE 2. Emergent Ecologies in the Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is undergoing one of the world’s largest marine transformation. The Suez Canal, dug to shorten the route between East and West, has become a “highway” for tropical marine species (jellyfish, rabbitfish, crustacea and algae), in search of new habitats.
There is more to fish than food and biology. Migratory fishes tell stories about past world-orders and global shipping. Escaping marine heatwaves and underwater deserts, they also co-write the future of our seas.
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Selected publications
Anthropologists Are Talking About Ecography
2025. Bubandt, N., Chao, S., Lien, M., Paxson, H., Virtanen, P. K., Ahlberg, K., and Cole, T. Ethnos, 1–18. https://doi-org.ezp.sub.su.se/10.1080/00141844.2025.2541773
The Wild Workforce: Enlisting Non-Human Labour in Invasive Species Management
2025. von Essen, E., Wanderer, E., Lennon, G., and Ahlberg, K. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space (online). https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241300941
Dealing with Biodiversity Dilemmas in Ordinary Places: The Case of Invasive and Introduced Species
2024. von Essen, E., Ahlberg, K., Cole, T., Karlsson B. G., and Maček, I. Nature and Culture 19(3): 237-45. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2024.190301
Who Cares about Jellyfish? An Environmental Legacy of the Suez Canal Begins to Surface
2022. Ahlberg, K. International Journal of Middle East Studies 54(4): 764–71.
News
Social Anthropologists call for more complexity in biodiversity debate
Increasingly, animal and plant species are being moved, or migrating to new places as a result of climate change, trade and new infrastructure. While often referred to as ‘invasive’, the researchers behind the BIOrdinary project prefer to speak of migratory species. They want to shift the debate to focus on local contexts and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of biodiversity.
Blog posts
