Institute profile: The Centre Scientifique de Monaco—A reference in the study of coral and polar biology

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)

The Principality of Monaco has a long tradition in Science. Indeed, Prince Albert I, the great-great grandfather of the current Prince of Monaco, HSH Prince Albert II, is regarded as one of the fathers of modern oceanography. He conducted 24 research expeditions onboard his four oceanographic vessels, each of which returned with a harvest of new species and scientific data, with one that contributed to the Nobel Prize awarded to Charles Richet in 1913 for his discovery of anaphylaxis. Prince Albert I created the Oceanographic Museum, the “temple of the sea,” to showcase the results of His expeditions for the public. CSMLabs: The new lab located above the harbor of Monaco on the terrace of an existing building, close to the old town of Monaco. Picture by Éric Tambutté © CSM One of the major successes of the Monegasque center of research has been the development of coral culture and propagation methods under controlled conditions. It is now home to more than 60 species of tropical, temperate, and cold-water corals that are cultured in the lab for experimental purposes. Tropical coral species are maintained in an aquarium room containing five large (10,000 L) aquaria, whereas the temperate and deep-sea coral species are kept in two other rooms supplied with cold water (5000 L). In addition, five experimental rooms containing a total of seventy-eight 30-L aquaria, allow testing the effects of various environmental parameters on coral biology. All aquaria are equipped with pH, temperature, and oxygen sensors and are supplied with fresh seawater (about 10 m3/h) supplied by a pumping system drawing water from 50 m deep in the sea in front of Monaco-Ville. After circulating through the aquaria, the seawater is UV-sterilized before being returned to the sea. The sensors are connected to a central alarm to signal problems in their regulation and are remotely monitored via the web. In total, the aquaria hold more than 20 tons of seawater on the top floor of the building! Among species cultured in the aquaria, the CSM regularly champions the use of the tropical coral, Stylophora pistillata, which has become the “coral lab rat” model species since used by many other research teams. CSM Aquariums: The new aquarium facilities at the CSM. Storage aquariums to cultivate mother colonies and prepare experimental microcolonies. Picture by Éric Tambutté © CSM Polar biology: Field work using a rover camouflaged with an emperor penguin chick model “huddling” with chicks in a crèche.The rover was able to infiltrate the emperor penguin crèche without disturbance, thus demonstrating the possibility to use such a camouflaged rover to collect data from locations within a colony that are not accessible to a human investigator. Picture by Frédérique Olivier © John Downer Production The CSM welcomes within its teams, and within the framework of the programs elaborated above, post-doctoral visitors funded by international programs, such as National Science Foundation grants. The CSM also periodically has openings for doctoral and post-doctoral financing, generally announced on its website. To know more about the research and facilities at CSM, visit our website: www.centrescientifique.mc