Ashley Kusel
@ecologistash.bsky.social
Wildlife ecologist & PhD Candidate in the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research at the University of Florida studying green turtle grazing ecology. A lifelong lover of all things wild Florida and advocate for public lands.
Pleased to announce that our paper looking at factors shaping telomere length in the common coqui frog is finally out (see link below)!!!
Environmental factors shape skin telomere length in a frog coexisting with an invasive chytrid fungus - Evolutionary Ecology
Trait variation across environmental gradients provides valuable insights into the ecology and evolution of species. Telomere length is a dynamic trait associated with cellular ageing, stress physiolo...
idp.springer.com
ACCSTR student @ecologistash.bsky.social presented yesterday on the coprophagous relationship between remoras and green turtles. #ISTS2026
monitoring in Key West, FL shows that cruise ships disturb a similar amount of sediment to a hurricane, with negative implications for benthic sea life, such as #coral and #seagrass www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e...
Cruise ships stir up a hurricane’s worth of sediment, Key West monitoring shows
That sediment can smother corals and sea grass.
miamiherald.com
In other news... I am now the remora person of the sea turtle community. Never thought I'd make a name for myself this way, but coprophagy is fascinating.
The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center@seaturtlehospital.bsky.social · 2y agoSharksuckers (remoras) in the USVI subsist on green #seaturtle feces! Ashley Kusel of UF investigated the relationship between #greenturtles and #sharksuckers. Fascinating - and kind of gross! 🐢💩 #serstm2025
Dr. Karen Bjorndal was recently featured in a piece from the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Communications Support. Let's congratulate Dr. Bjorndal on her retirement, after a more than 50-year career at the University of Florida! news.clas.ufl.edu/karen-bjornd...
Karen Bjorndal retires after over 50 years at UF
After more than 50 years at UF, Director of the Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research Karen Bjorndal has retired.
news.clas.ufl.edu
Today is UF Giving Day! That means it is time to stand up and holler in support of the ACCSTR. We thank all of our generous donors so far! givingday.ufl.edu/campaigns/ar...
