Image: Emily Skinner with project collaborators and poster co-authors Deborah Feliciano & Derick Gil Hernández from Chelonia, Puerto Rico.
Congratulations to graduate student Emily Skinner for winning the Best Poster Presentation award at the 2025 Southeast Regional Sea Turtle Meeting! The meeting had 420 attendees, with Emily taking the top award out of 80 presented posters. Emily’s poster presented her work on using environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor hawksbill turtle populations.
Congratulations also to graduate student Costanza Manes, who won the Runner-Up Talk award! Costanza’s talk included some of her viral research findings from work conducted here at the Whitney Lab.
An honorable mention also to Gianna Fanelli and Chris Nolte for their successful poster and oral presentations.
Emily Skinner and Gianna Fanelli are graduate students in the Whitney Laboratory Duffy Lab and UF Biology Dept. Costanza Manes (Carthy Lab) and Chris Nolte (Vander Zanden Lab) are graduate students in the UF Wildlife Ecology & Conservation Dept. and UF Biology Dept., respectively. Costanza & Chris conducted the molecular biology portions of their presented projects in the Whitney Laboratory Duffy Lab.
All four students were generously supported by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation: Sea Turtle Conservation, Genomics, Fibropapillomatosis and Threat Training and Research Initiative at UF’s Whitney Laboratory.
Poster/Talk Titles.
Emily: Validating the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring on Southeastern US hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) populations.
Costanza: Fibropapillomatosis: the virus and the environment.
Gianna: The influence of natal origin on the biometrics and distribution of a mixed-stock aggregation of immature hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in SE Florida
Chris: (a) Exploring the population genetics and structure of hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) foraging off the coast of Florida. (b) Reconstructing demographic histories and genetic diversity for nesting Florida leatherbacks.
