Conservation Lecture Series
Thursday, October 10, 2013 7 p.m.
FSUCML Auditorium
Significant gaps exist in our understanding of early sea turtle life stages. The youngest sea turtle life stages, otherwise known as the "lost years", are the most difficult to study due to the turtles' size, fast growth rates, and oceanic lifestyle. Laws and treaties mandate the recovery of these endangered or threatened animals. Species recovery requires that we understand sea turtle distributions, habitat use, and population dynamics across all life stages-from hatchling to adult; later sea turtle life stages are necessarily dependent on the survival of the earliest life stages. Yet the dispersal and habitat use of young oceanic sea turtles are largely inferred rather than directly observed or quantified. Existing data are few and based on labor-intensive visual observations or opportunistic animal sightings. Filling these gaps requires new technologies and methods.
 Dr. Mansfield will discuss sea turtle life history and her research that resulted in the development of methods to satellite track small, oceanic stage juvenile sea turtles. These methods, including solar-powered satellite tag technologies, are now being used by Dr. Mansfield to successfully track the very first oceanic stage sea turtles.
*Free and open to the public. No registration required.
|
|
|
Bio: Dr. Kate Mansfield
University of Central Florida
After completing her Ph. D. at the College of William and Mary, Virginia Insitute of Marine Science, Dr. Mansfield moved to Florida where she has held postdoctoral positions at the University of
Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, as well as at NOAA Fisheries, Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Currently, Dr. Mansfield is an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at the University of Central Florida.
She has worked with sea turtles since 1994 including more than eight years of nesting beach experience and sixteen years of in-water sea turtle handling and tagging experience using satellite, radio, and acoustic tag applications of sea turtles from the North and South Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Her research focuses
on sea turtle biology, ecology, behavior, management, and conservation. Using various census and telemetry methods, Dr. Mansfield's work examines sea turtle movements, migration, and habitat utilization, examining how in-water sea turtle behavior may influence the potential for turtle-human interactions.
|
|
|
