Search
For information about my previous experience, visit my CV here.
Picture
Northern Palau Patch Reef. Nia Walker, July 2018
Coral Thermal Resilience 

Corals exhibit variable bleaching resistance and recovery. Currently, I am studying trade-offs between individual coral bleaching resistance and recovery ability. The goal is to identify links between these mechanisms that each contribute to corals' overarching thermal resilience as climate change impacts worsen. This work is done in the reef-building coral species Acropora hyacinthus in Palau's southern lagoon, and I use genetics and physiology techniques to address these questions.
Picture
photo credit: Journey to the South Pacific
Coral Population Genetics

Population genetic structure can inform us about gene flow, dispersal, and potential for adaptation and differentiation. I am interested in studying population genetics of genes linked to thermal resistance and recovery in Acropora hyacinthus colonies across variable geographic locations throughout Palau.
Picture
photo credit: Simon Donner, Fiji
Intra-specific Variation of Coral Bleaching Recovery

It is predicted that global coral bleaching events will continue to increase in frequency and intensity in the coming years. While some corals experience bleaching, a percentage are able to recover. I am interested in studying bleaching recovery capacity from the physiological, genetics, and genomics perspectives. While much research has been done between species, I am interested in studying intra-specific variation (i.e. differences between individuals within the same species) during coral bleaching recovery. Understanding how individuals differ will allow us to better harness the inherent or natural variation found on reefs--potentially for future rehabilitation and restoration projects.
Publications:

Walker, NS,​ Fernandez, RM, Paul, V, Sneed, J, Giribet, G, and Combosch, D. 2019. Differential Gene Expression during Substrate Probing in Larvae of the Caribbean Coral Porites astreoides. Molecular Ecology 28(22):4899-4913. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15265