Staff Biologist - Coral Gene Bank

Primary Function: This position is primarily to conduct primary activities at Mote’s International Coral Gene Bank, including but not limited to the caring for corals within the gene bank, maintaining the ex situ spawning systems, assisting with coral spawning, fertilization, larval settlement, recruit rearing, and grow-out of sexually and asexually produced corals from any stony coral species being propagated.
 
Primary Duties:

• Oversee daily care and maintenance of corals and their raceway habitats
• Ensure that corals are appropriately propagated asexually for redundancy of the genetic diversity within the infrastructure
• Represent Mote’s Gene Bank on working groups and within meetings
• Liaise between collaborative institutions for knowledge exchange and collaborative projects
• Assist with restoration and/or research objectives involving the sexual propagation of corals and corals within Mote’s International Coral Gene Bank
• General coral husbandry tasks on any corals within the Gene Bank include siphoning and cleaning raceways, employing algal mitigation strategies, maintaining grazing organisms, administering Lugol treatments, providing appropriate lighting schemes, conduct/oversee onsite water chemistry analyses, feeding coral recruits, building settlement racks, maintain communication with the restoration team for transport of corals to the gene bank in case of unfavorable weather.
• Conduct coral separation and re-mounting to new substrates
• Conduct optimization of labelling schemes and record keeping
• Ensure a safe, clean, organized indoor wetlab space
• Assist with taking coral samples for genetic and research purposes
• Conduct data collection, entry and analysis associated with research
• Conduct microfragmentation when necessary
• Assist with macro/micrograph and fluorescence imaging
• Mentor interns
• Maintain an organized nursery and inventory of corals
• Manage deliverables associated with specific funding efforts
• Manage daily operations of ex situ spawning systems
• Manage daily operations of the coral quarantine area