Sea Turtle Fusarium Q&A

Good question - it stems all the way back to being interested in marine biology in high school and college. Later in my college career I was introduced to the word of fungi, and I tried to combine both interests when I got to graduate school. I am fortunate to working in a lab that focuses on this in particular fungus, Fusarium. And, since this disease is relatively new (to our knowledge) and kind of overlooked, I've been able to take advantage of some awesome collaboration opportunities with the group in Spain responsible for the original research!

Hi Justine! Good question! Losing sea turtles & their eggs could have quite a few ecological repercussions. First - sea turtles are some of the only animals that graze on sea grass beds! These large underwater lawns need to be "mowed" every now and again to keep them healthy and growing outward instead of up! Growing outward leads to more square footage of sea grass beds, which are ecosystems that have recently been in decline.

Another important impact loss of sea turtle eggs could have would be on beaches! Sandy beaches are often low in food for other organisms to eat. Dead and decaying sea turtle eggs provide a really important source of nutrients for scavengers as well as plants, such as dune grass. You can find lots more information about sea turtles and their importance at this really excellent website: http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtleinformation.php