Research Area(s)

Marine turtle ecology and conservation biology, including population dynamics, diet, movements, and threats, and implications for protected species policy

Background

Erin Seney is an Associate Research Scientist and non-teaching faculty member with the Marine Turtle Research Group in the University of Central Florida’s Department of Biology. She holds a B.A. in Biology (University of Virginia), an M.S. in Marine Science (College of William and Mary), a Ph.D. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science (Texas A&M University), and a professional certificate in Geographic Information Systems (George Mason University). After receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Seney was an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow placed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation, and she later ran her own consulting business.

Dr. Seney’s areas of expertise include marine turtle movement and diet research, conservation biology, fisheries, and policy. She has conducted marine turtle research and nesting, in-water, stranding, and rehabilitation activities in Virginia, Texas, and Florida and developed a satellite transmitter attachment method for small neritic Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Dr. Seney has authored and co-authored publications on marine turtle diet, movement, ditribution, and stock assessment; implications of climate change on Endangered Species Act decisions; and fishery bycatch. She is currently a member of the University’s Marine Turtle Research Group, and oversees and participates in long-term monitoring and research at central Florida nesting beaches and in-water habitats. Dr. Seney is currently leading a study to characterize the diets of stranded sea turtles and collaborates with Dr. Anna Forsman​ on projects aimed at identifying green turtle diet items and characterizing sea turtle microbiome using DNA metabarcoding.