SymBio Lab

Marine Symbiosis and Biodiversity Research Lab PI: Ben Titus @NemTitus at the Univ of AL @UA and @DIsealab

[Kai or Aurie 🍉 @kkaineus]

Please RT! I'm looking to get short statements from queer marine scientists & biologists (& related fields) about their experiences being queer in their fields. Any level of experience or career is okay, anonymous statements are possible. DM me here on Twitter or email me!

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Thrilled to have our new NSF awarded postdoc @GobyPrincess! Can’t say that she’ll be any good at blending into an anemone, but she’ll figure out if clownfish are any good at it.

[Catheline Froehlich🐠🎙️🐡|FishEcologist|Podcaster @GobyPrincess]

Really excited to announce that I was awarded @NSF #PRFB postdoc for 3yrs to work with @NemTitus @Titus_SymBioLab!
Studying the rules of life governing clownfish color patterns. 🐠 🐟
In honor, I’ve color matched the red and white clownfish!

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

A day of sampling with your French postdoc naturally ends with a chicken, Brie, and wine picnic in the back of the truck- even in Western Australia 😂

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Spot the clownfish! Sciencing hard over here at Coral Bay
#clownfish #coralreef #research #marinebiology #findthefish

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Sample processing continues! On one side, microbiome work and clownfish dissections, and on the other, high molecular weight DNA extractions for the host sea anemones. 1 week left!

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Birthdays are important- birthdays in the field are more important! Happy 30th Birthday to SymBio Lab PhD student Tom Chiodo!

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Any help on permit info?

[Catheline Froehlich🐠🎙️🐡|FishEcologist|Podcaster @GobyPrincess]

Do we need a permit to collect marine invertebrates from NSW and QLD in Australia if they are not in the Great Barrier Reef or other reef sanctuary zones in either state? #marinebiology #marine #invertebrate #science #research #permit #Australia

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Baptism by fire for first year grad students! The current and general diving conditions have been quite tough here in Western Australia with what the locals are saying is the first major swell of the winter.

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Sometimes fieldwork is hard…😂

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

Our other projects here on Ningaloo focus on the role of the host sea anemone species on the behavior of their clownfish symbionts. So we are setting up GoPro cameras to record daily activity budgets of the fish themselves as seen here by @NSF postdoc @GobyPrincess

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

But anemones are a weird group with fewer species in the tropics than at higher latitudes, so we are also testing hypotheses about sea anemone diversity broadly. So we sample the intertidal some as well! Below is a species we just collected from (?) the genus Anthopleura @daly66

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

One week into our trip to Ningaloo reef and projects are well underway! Our main project is funded by @NSF to look at the systematics and species delimitation of the host sea anemones. A main species is the bubble tip anemone Entacmaea quadricolor seen below 1/n

[SymBio Lab @Titus_SymBioLab]

The SymBio Lab is off on our first major research trip! We will be spending the next three weeks on Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia studying the clownfish sea anemone symbiosis and sea anemone biodiversity broadly. Stay tuned for updates from the field!