Grant: 22-005R
Project Title: Year 2: Connecting Health and Ecology for Juvenile Sea Turtles in Eastern Central Florida
Project Manager: Kate Mansfield, Ph.D.
Organization: University of Central Florida (Research and Educational Institute)
Grant Amount: $12,519.00
Completion Date:
Summary: Wildlife health assessments are a necessary tool for understanding conservation threats and population status of protected species. Using baseline blood values as an evaluation strategy allows for improved population assessment, the ability to track health changes over time, and evaluate impacts throughout environmental disturbances. Once a baseline for a sub-population or aggregation is established, long-term monitoring can help indicate when individuals or a sub-population is deviating from “healthy” levels and thereby identifying risks, aiding in conservation and management. Deviations highlight the need to evaluate ecological factors such as disease prevalence and habitat suitability. We propose to progress our successfully funded 2021 Sea Turtle License Plate grant on nesting females in the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge (21-019R) and next focus on the health and ecology of juvenile loggerhead and green turtles foraging in eastern central Florida near-shore habitats. These projects are components of a larger project which aims to evaluate the interface between health and ecology for these species across life-stages and habitats. These analyses will provide a better understanding of how environmental factors affect sea turtle health using existing and newly collected samples from juvenile green and loggerhead sea turtles captured during routine in-water field work. 
Results: