My research focuses on understanding how corals respond and adapt to thermal stress, with an emphasis on the genetic and physiological mechanisms that contribute to resilience. During my undergraduate research, I began by exploring the phenotypic characteristics of corals, which sparked my interest in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying those visible traits. This gradually led me to develop a strong interest in genomics as a way to investigate the molecular basis of coral phenotypes and better understand how these organisms respond to environmental stress.
Building on this foundation, my current research is centered on identifying the genomic drivers of coral thermal tolerance by integrating acute heat-stress experiments, natural bleaching observations, and population-level genomic data. My work combines experimental approaches such as the Coral Bleaching Automated Stress System (CBASS) with genomic tools including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to link variation in bleaching responses to underlying genetic differences among coral colonies.
I am also interested in comparing experimental and natural heat-stress responses to better understand how well laboratory-based phenotyping reflects coral performance in the field. More broadly, my research interests include coral bleaching, coral-algal symbiosis, ecological genomics, and the application of molecular and image-based methods to study coral health and climate resilience.

Pedraza-Pohlenz RM, Balart EF, Tortolero-Langarica JJA, Rodríguez-Troncoso AP, Hellberg ME, Norzagaray-López O, Cabral-Tena RA, Cupul-Magaña AL, and Paz-García DA. (2023). “Sexual dimorphism in corallite size and modularity of a broadcast spawning coral, Porites lobata”. Front. Mar. Sci. 9:1068391. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2022.1068391

M.Sc. Marine Science – King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia (2021-2023)
BSc. Marine Biology - Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, La Paz, Mexico (2015-2020)

Marine scientist with an emerging specialization in coral genomics, and a background in coral biology, imaging-based phenotyping, and molecular approaches to understanding coral resilience. My work focuses on the genetic basis of thermal tolerance in reef-building corals, combining experimental heat-stress assays, field observations of natural bleaching, and genomic analyses. With training spanning coral morphology, cnidarian model systems, and functional genomics, I am particularly interested in linking physiological responses to the molecular mechanisms that underlie coral adaptation to climate stress.

International Coral Reef Society (ICRS)
Sociedad Mexicana de Arrecifes Coralinos (SOMAC)

Second place in oral presentations at the X Mexican Coral Reefs Symposium at undergraduate level, Mexico. April 2019.
First place presenting the advances of my undergraduate thesis at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, Mexico. November 2018.

Biological and Environmental Science and Engineering Division (BESE)

Coral Thermal Resilience Ecological Genomics Population Genetics, coral-algal symbiosis Climate resilience Image-based phenotyping Coral reproduction Epigenetics