Ecology

Sea turtles move between foraging grounds and breeding grounds. They provide important ecosystem services such as moving nutrients, pathogens, and epibionts over large distances from one ecosystem to another. The success of sea turtle populations depends on the quality of the habitat they come from, like intact sea grass beds or reefs, as well as  protected nesting beaches.

• We have projects on: Nest site fidelity, Nutrient cycling, Ecological role and the Casuarina effect.

• Ongoing research is focusing particularly on the sea turtle species, like green turtles and hawkbill sea turtles, that do not come ashore. (See the Citizen Science page.)

• And we still have lots to learn about turtles in the water – where do they go, what is their home range, how fast do they grow.