I am Khadija Haider, Fulbright Ph.D. candidate with Dr. Chris Langdon. I did BS and MS in Environmental Sciences from renowned universities in Pakistan. During my undergrad, I studied abroad in Istanbul, Turkey on Erasmus Mundus scholarship and learned Geographical Information System (GIS) which proved to be a life-changing semester. On my return to Pakistan, I was offered a GIS Associate position at WWF, where I mapped the coral reefs along the coastline of Pakistan using GIS and remote sensing techniques. During Masters, my research was focused on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and temperature trends in Pakistan over the past decades. So, in my Ph.D. I wanted to explore how atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and climate change impact the coral reefs.
Acropora cervicornis (Staghorn coral), once a widespread coral species on the Florida reef is now a critically endangered one and the anticipated ocean acidification and climate change have the potential to make the situation worse. So, in my doctoral research, I am looking for the physiological biomarkers that make the staghorn coral resistant or susceptible to mortality caused by multi stressors. The goal is to identify the resistant genotypes/genes for the effective restoration of the endangered species.
