Grant: 26-006C
Project Title: Year 3: Bringing the UCF Marine Turtle Research Group Database into the 21st Century
Project Manager: Erin Seney
Organization: University of Central Florida (Research and Educational Institute)
Grant Amount: $21,998.00
Completion Date:
Summary: This project will finish UCF's work with database specialists (Skeleton Key) to update and streamline our existing FileMaker Pro sea turtle database. The UCF Marine Turtle Research Group has collected enormous amounts of data over 40+ years along some of the most important stretches of nesting beach and developmental in-water habitats in the United States and world. We provide field-based educational and research opportunities to students, and scientific advisory service to local, state, and international science and management entities. The data we collect have direct and important conservation, scientific, and management impact on Florida's sea turtles and North Atlantic sea turtle populations.Year 1 funding allowed us to begin streamlining our complex data formats for multiple Brevard County nesting beaches. Year 2 funding allowed us to improve the new survey module's functionality, based in part on 2025 data entry, and add new data summary reports and graphs. Both years, UCF used additional lab funds to meet most goals for the survey database model. In Year 3, we propose to work with Skeleton Key to: (1) improve functionality of our survey module and integrate additional historical data; (2) continue to troubleshoot and streamline our existing tagged turtle/nest fate module; and (3) reconfigure the structure of the tagged turtle/nest fate module to better follow tagging histories and fates over time. These updates will improve both database modules' reporting, query, and analysis capacity and allow us to maximize our data's research, management, and conservation potential.
Results: