Pacuare Nature Reserve

We will correlate environmental conditions and how they affect fungal pathogen abundance in leatherback sea turtle nests. We know that different environmental conditions affect sea turtles and alter their behavior, but we don’t know how environmental conditions affect fungal growth in sea turtle nests and and how this affects hatchling success rates. Inoculation of Yellow-Belly Slider eggs with the fungal pathogen will help link this species of fungus to an increase in hatchling mortality rates.