Welcome to the Moore Lab!

Jon A. Moore, Ph.D.

Professor of Biology, Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL

Dr. Moore is an ichthyologist whose research focuses on the sytematics and ecology of deep-sea fishes. His land-based research centers around the ecology of gopher tortoises in Florida scrub ecosystems.

For the past fifteen years, Dr. Moore and his students have been working on the systematics and ecology of deep-sea fishes in the northern Gulf of Mexico as part of the DeepEnd project. Previous work included studies of seamounts, including Bear Seamount, in the North Atlantic, and the feasibility of deep-sea fisheries off of New England.

For the past twenty-five years, Dr. Moore and his students have been studying a population of over 300 gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) that reside in the Abacoa Greenway in Jupiter, Florida. These studies include the general ecology of the tortoises, including their demography, seasonality of reproduction, population genetics and genomics, and disease occurrence and transmission.

Dr. Moore's other research interests include: the ecology of invasive reptiles and amphibians in Florida, conservation of endangered plants and lichens, and the photo identification of manatees.

Dr. Moore is deeply committed to mentoring student research and has supervised over 150 senior theses at the Wilkes Honors College, as well as supervising master's and Ph.D. students in the FAU School of Environmental, Coastal, and Ocean Sustainability, and the Marine Science and Oceanography Program at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at FAU in Fort Pierce, Florida.