Staff
Imran Khaliq


Dr. Imran Khaliq
I am an ecologist and broadly interested in biodiversity. I work on species’ distributions both in spatial and temporal dimensions. In my work, I integrate species distributional, morphological, physiological, ecological and phylogenetic data to understand species responses to climate change. For the past few years, my focus has been on understanding the role of species’ physiology in determining their distribution and to predict species' responses to future climate change. In the Narwani and Rixen (WSL) groups, as a BGB postdoc, my focus was to study warming-related community turnover in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The main aim of the project was to identify the drivers of this turnover at local as well at global scales in both blue and green realms. This project will enhance our understanding of community responses to changing climatic conditions and enable us to estimate the vulnerability of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Currently, following up the thermophilisation project, I am now interested in to identify the drivers of climatic debt.
Projects
Biodiversity under warming world
I am involved in compiling experimentally measured thermal tolerance data for hundreds of ectotherm species across elevation gradients in Central and Northern areas of Pakistan. We are interested to evaluate the role of thermal tolerance is species distributional patterns. This will enable us to assess species future responses to rising temperatures and to determine shifts in their distribution.
Curriculum Vitae
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Since 2021: Postdoc in Narwani' lab as a BGB-fellow 2015-2020: Assistant Professor at Higher Education Department (Punjab), Pakistan 2011-2015: PhD student at Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre and J. W. Goethe university, Frankfurt, Germany 2005-2011: Lecturer of Biology at Higher Education Department (Punjab), Pakistan |
Administrative experience
2018-2020: Head of Department, Zoology Department
Ahmed, S, Soorae, P. S., Hammadi, E. A., Zaabi, R. A., Saji, A., Khan, S. B., Sakkir, S., Ali, A., Khaliq, I., Gubiani, R. E., Javed, S., Omari, K. A., & Dhaheri, S. A. (2021) Does habitat heterogeneity influence taxonomic richness and abundance? A case study from a terrestrial protected area in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences. doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.10.056
Buckley, L. B., Khaliq, I., Swanson, D. L. & Hof, C. (2018) Does metabolism constrain bird and mammal ranges and predict shifts in response to climate change? Ecology and Evolution, 8:12375-12385
Forcina, G., Guerrini, G., Khaliq, I., Khan, A. A. & Barbanera, F. (2018) Human-modified biogeographic patterns and conservation in game birds: The dilemma of the black francolin (Francolinus francolinus, Phasianidae) in Pakistan. PLoS ONE, 13(10): e0205059.
Ali, T., Munoz-Fuentes, V., Schmuker, A., Buch, A., Celik, A., Dutbayev, A., Gabrielyan, I., Glynou, K., Kitner, M., Khaliq, I., Nigrelli, L., Macia-Vicente, J., Ploch, S., Rung, F., Solovyeva, I., Vakhrusheva, L., Xia, X., Nowak, C. & Thines, M. (2017) Genetic patterns reflecting Pleistocene range dynamics in the annual calcicola plant Microthlaspi erraticum across its Eurasian range. FLORA, 237: 132-142
Methorst, J., Bohning-Gaese, K., Khaliq, I. & Hof, C. (2017) A framework integrating physiology, dispersal and land-use to project species ranges under climate change. Journal of Avian Biology,48:001-017.
Forcina, G., Panayides, P., Guerrini, M., Nardi, F., Gupta, B.K., Mori, E., Al-Sheikhly, O.F., Mansoori, J., Khaliq, I., Rank, D.N., Parasharya, B.M., Khan, A.A., Hadjigerou, P. & Barbanera, F. (2012). Molecular evolution of the Asian francolins (Francolinus, Galliformes): a modern reappraisal of a classic study in speciation. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 65: 523-534.
Khaliq, I., Böhning-Gaese, K., Prinzinger, R., Pfenninger, M. & Hof, C. (2017) The influence of thermal tolerances on geographical ranges of endotherms. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 26: 650-668.
Ashfaq, M.,…..Khaliq, I.,… Hebert, P. D. N. (2022) A DNA barcode survey of insect biodiversity in Pakistan. PeerJ 10:e13267
Riaz M., Warren, D., Wittwer, C., Cocchiararo, B., Hundertmark, I., Reiner, T. E., Klimpel, S., Pfenninger, M., Khaliq, I., Nowak, C. (2023) Using eDNA to understand predator-prey interactions influenced by invasive species. Oecologia
Khaliq, I., Shahid, M. J., Kamran H., Sheraz M., Awais M., Shabir M., Asgher M., Rehman A., Riaz M., Braschler, B., Sanders N. J., & Hof, C. (2023) The role of thermal tolerance in determining elevational distributions of four arthropod taxa in mountain ranges of southern Asia. Journal of Animal Ecology
This member of staff no longer works at Eawag. Please contact info@eawag.ch for further information.
Research Group
Anita Narwani's lab