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ESR 7: Amina Khalid


Country of origin: Pakistan

Host institution: University of Girona

Contact: amina.khalid@udg.edu

About me

A decade ago, the word ‘environment’ was not well understood, it was a fairly new field in Pakistan therefore Amina chose to study Environmental Science in her BSc and MSc from Fatima Jinnah Women University and National University of Science and Technology, Pakistan. She carried out her BSc research to investigate the metal contamination in irrigation water, soil and crops of peri-urban areas of Multan. Owing to the fact that unplanned urbanization in Pakistan is causing environmental havoc and needs rigorous research in the field, she opted to work on pesticide contamination in her MSc. Her objective was to analyze the toxicological effects of pesticide in fish using various health biomarkers and to evaluate its bioaccumulation potential in fish muscles during her MSc. She did her second masters in Aquaculture, Environment and Society (ACES) through Erasmus Mundus scholarship from a consortium of three universities University of Highlands and Island, University of Crete and University of Nantes. Biodegradable plastics have been newly introduced in the market; the MSc research was designed to evaluate the effects of biodegradable microplastic (if any) by taking mussels as sentinel organism. After completing her studies, she started working as an Environmental Engineer in Qatar and worked on numerous projects including seagrass and coral health assessment, implementation of environmental management system e.t.c.

Her interest in research is profound. She is currently employed as ESR7 under PRORISK project in University of Girona. Her research focuses on examining the effects of chemical and nonchemical stresses on fish performance biomarkers at individual level and its propagation in the population using AOP framework.

Project

Project title: Linking physiological, individual and population level effects: AOP on the fish performance biomarkers (swimming capacity, metabolism and energetics)
Objectives: Examine relationships between fish performance disruptions and fitness changes in individual fish.
Evaluate propagation of altered individual fitness into altered population demography under consideration of physiological and ecological traits.
Investigate the modulating influence of non-chemical stressors on fish performance disruption.
Apply research findings in the context of a regulatory risk assessment for fish performance disruptors.
Expected results: Understanding for a selected AOP (fish performance disruption - adverse individual/population outcome) the qualitative and quantitative relationships between organisms and ecological effects of chemical exposure.
Experience in scopes and limits of mechanism-based approaches to environmental risk assessment.
Place: Girona, Spain
Planned secondments:
ECT, M18, 2 months, link the data at the individual, population level to effects at the ecosystem level
USFD, M30, 2 months, assessment/modelling ecological effects
Work packages: 3 - Linking molecular responses to effects at higher biological levels using adverse outcome pathways (AOPs)
4 - Predicting effects on ecosystem services through AOPs
Supervisors: Dr. Anna Vila-Gispert, UdG
Dr. Helena Guasch, CSIC-CEAB
Co-supervisors/Mentors:
Prof. Dr. Lorraine Maltby, USFD
Dr. Jörg Römbke, ECT
Host institution and enrolment: University of Girona

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