Dr. Mariana Fuentes (Associate Professor, Florida State University), a sea turtle conservation biologist, has been involved with sea turtle research and conservation for over 20 years. Dr. Fuentes's work provides a critical scientific basis to aid the recovery of threatened marine megafauna, in particular marine turtles. Her research draws together a wide range of disciplines, and she often works closely with various stakeholders on interdisciplinary research topics and management issues. Her expertise is in integrating field-based ecology with systematic conservation planning, decision-theory approaches, climate modeling, and applied qualitative and geographic spatial analysis. She uses these tools to explore how marine turtles, interact with environmental processes and how they are impacted by current and future disturbances.