Raymond R. Carthy, PhD
Assistant Unit Leader - Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
Research Interests
Dr. Carthy's research centers on ecology of endangered species. His research interests involve reproductive ecology and physiology of coastal and wetland herpetofauna, with current focus on marine and freshwater turtles. He is also involved in research on threatened upland species and in conservation management oriented studies.
Teaching Interests
In addition to teaching herpetology classes centered on ecology and conservation of marine chelonids, Dr. Carthy has taught courses on bioethics and critical thinking. he is currently developing a graduate level course on coastal ecology.
Professional Experience
Assistant Unit Leader, Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 1996-
Education and Certifications
Ph D University of Florida 1996
MS Slippery Rock University 1983
BS Manhattan College 1980
Science and Products
Surface time for sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010-2019
This dataset contains surface dive times, defined as 0-2 m in the water column, for three species of sea turtles (Kemp's ridleys, loggerheads, and green turtles) tracked via satellite telemetry in the Gulf of Mexico during periods within 2010-2019. It contains information on turtle species, location, proportion of time in "surface" bins, region of the Gulf of Mexico, corresponding remotely-sensed
Mangrove distribution in the southeastern United States in 2021
Global climate change is leading to large-scale shifts in species' range limits. For example, rising winter temperatures are shifting the abundance and distributions of tropical, cold sensitive plant species towards higher latitudes. Coastal wetlands provide a prime example of such shifts, with tropical mangrove forests expanding into temperate salt marshes as winter warming alleviates past geogra
Preliminary data from animal borne cameras on loggerhead sea turtles in St. Joseph Bay, Florida (2018-2019)
This is a fifty-four second video which includes short segments compiled from video collected using GoPro cameras mounted on two individual loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) within St. Joseph Bay, Florida as part of a preliminary data release for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) outreach publications. Approximately 90 minutes of video footage was collected per individual prior to retrieval. This i
Data for herpetofaunal inventories of the national parks of South Florida and the Caribbean: Volume II, Virgin Islands National Park
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) requires the use of ecological indicators to measure the success of restoration efforts. The Everglades amphibian community is ideal because amphibians are present in all habitats and under all hydrologic regimes. During Everglades restoration, hydrologic patterns will change and the response of ecological indicators will determine success. Fo
Filter Total Items: 58
Diet of Dermatemys mawii, an aquatic turtle that relies heavily on terrestrial vegetation
Dermatemys mawii is a critically endangered freshwater turtle endemic to Central America. In the wild, these turtles are thought to be wholly herbivorous as adults and feed on a variety of vegetation; however, no studies have quantitatively assessed potential dietary differences based on biotic and abiotic factors. The purpose of our study was to describe and quantify the wild diet of D. mawii and
Authors
Nichole D. Bishop, John Polisar, Peter J. Eliazar, Raymond Carthy, Karen A. Bjorndal
Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: Tumor morphology and growth rate in a rehabilitation setting
Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a neoplastic disease most often found in green turtles (Chelonia mydas). Afflicted turtles are burdened with potentially debilitating tumors concentrated externally on the soft tissues, plastron, and eyes and internally on the lungs, kidneys, and the heart. Clinical signs occur at various levels, ranging from mild disease to severe debilitation. Tumors can both progress
Authors
Costanza Manes, Richard M. Herren, Annie Page, Faith Dunlap, Chris Skibicki, Devon R. Rollinson Ramia, Jessica A. Farrell, Ilaria Capua, Raymond R. Carthy, David J. Duffy
Accuracy and precision of sea-finding orientation as a function of dune proximity in hatchlings of two species of sea turtles
Context: Sea turtle hatchlings generally emerge at night from nests on sand beaches and immediately orient using visual cues, which are believed to entail the difference in brightness between the light seen in the seaward direction and that seen in the duneward direction.Aim: The aim of this study was to understand how dune proximity affected hatchling orientations in two sea turtle species that s
Authors
Shigetomo Hirama, Blair Witherington, Andrea Sylvia, Raymond Carthy
A coupled human and natural systems framework to characterize emerging infectious diseases: The case of fibropapillomatosis in marine turtles
Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife have markedly increased in the last few decades. Unsustainable, continuous, and rapid alterations within and between coupled human and natural systems have significantly disrupted wildlife disease dynamics. Direct and indirect anthropogenic effects, such as climate change, pollution, encroachment, urbanization, travel, and trade, can promote outbreaks of in
Authors
Costanza Manes, Raymond Carthy, Vanessa Hull
The Bathy-drone: An autonomous unmanned drone-tethered sonar system
A unique drone-based system for underwater mapping (bathymetry) was developed at the University of Florida. The system, called the “Bathy-drone”, comprises a drone that drags, via a tether, a small vessel on the water surface in a raster pattern. The vessel is equipped with a recreational commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sonar unit that has down-scan, side-scan, and chirp capabilities and logs GPS-
Authors
Antonio L. Diaz, Andrew E. Ortega, Henry Tingle, Andres Pulido, Orlando Cordero, Marisa Nelson, Nicholas E. Cocoves, Jaejeong Shin, Raymond Carthy, Benjamin E. Wilkinson, Peter G. Ifju
Deep and machine learning image classification of coastal wetlands using unpiloted aircraft system multispectral images and lidar datasets
The recent developments of new deep learning architectures create opportunities to accurately classify high-resolution unoccupied aerial system (UAS) images of natural coastal systems and mandate continuous evaluation of algorithm performance. We evaluated the performance of the U-Net and DeepLabv3 deep convolutional network architectures and two traditional machine learning techniques (support ve
Authors
Ali Gonzalez Perez, Amr Abd-Elrahman, Benjamin Wilkinson, Daniel J. Johnson, Raymond Carthy
Tidally-driven gas exchange in beaches: Implications for sea turtle nest success
The success of individual sea turtle nests is influenced by nest location on the beach and the resulting incubation environment. Several abiotic factors affect nest incubation, and thus nest success, but tides and gas exchange are two of the most important. The effects of tides on nest success have been well documented in regard to overwash and inundation events. However, the possible effect of ti
Authors
K.M. Goforth, Raymond Carthy
Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise) adult mortality
Gopherus polyphemus has typically high adult survivorship, with some populations reaching a mean annual survivorship of 93.4% (Howell et al. 2019. J. Wildl. Manage. 84:56–65). Instances of adult mortality are not commonly reported outside of large mortality events, and most often result from disease, starvation, dehydration, or chronic stress (Gates et al. 2002. Florida Sci. 65:185–
197; Cozad et
Authors
Michael Palandri, Margaret M. Lamont
Genetic diversity of immature Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) sea turtles from the northern Gulf of Mexico
The Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is the world’s most endangered sea turtle species. Predominately nesting at only one beach in Mexico, this species declined to an estimated 300 females in the mid-1980s. Conservation efforts in the United States and Mexico, including a head start programme in southern Texas in which hatchlings were reared in captivity for several months before being released
Authors
Margaret Lamont, Nickolas Moreno, Fatima Y. Camacho-Sanchez, H. Hugo Acosta-Sanchez, Scott Glaberman, Miguel A. Reyes-Lopez, Ylenia Chiari
Identification of the Gulf of Mexico as an important high-use habitat for leatherback turtles from Central America
Endangered leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are wide-ranging, long-distance migrants whose movements are often associated with environmental cues. We examined the spatial distribution and habitat use for 33 satellite-tracked leatherbacks from nesting beaches on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama from 2004 to 2018, an important nesting population for the leatherback Northwes
Authors
D.R. Evans, R.A. Valverde, C. Ordoñez, Raymond R. Carthy
Using growth rates to estimate the minimum age and size at sexual maturity in a captive population of the critically endangered Central American river turtle Dermatemys mawii
The Central American river turtle Dermatemys mawii is a critically endangered species that has incurred substantial losses over the last several decades due to overhunting. This species is now being considered for head-starting programs (i.e. captive breeding of turtles for wild release). However, relatively little is known about their life history characteristics, especially with respect to growt
Authors
Nichole D. Bishop, Rick Hudson, Jacob Marlin, Thomas Pop, Thomas R. Rainwater, Shane M. Boylan, Benjamin K. Atkinson, Raymond Carthy
Using systems thinking to inform management of imperiled species: A case study with sea turtles
Management of imperiled species facing spatiotemporally dynamic threats is difficult. Systems thinking can inform their management by quantifying the impacts that they face. We apply systems thinking to the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGM) loggerhead (Caretta caretta) Recovery Unit (RU), one of the smallest subpopulations of loggerheads nesting in the USA. We characterized disturbances to nests, mana
Authors
Ian Silver-Gorges, Simona A. Ceriani, Matthew Ware, Megan Lamb, Margaret Lamont, Janice Becker, Raymond Carthy, Chris Matechik, Joseph C. Mitchell, Raya Pruner, Mike Reynolds, Bradley Smith, Caitlyn Snyder, Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes
Non-USGS Publications**
Williams,N.C., Bjorndal, K. A., Lamont, M.M., Carthy, R.R. 2014. Winter diets of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on a northern feeding ground: integrating stomach contents and stable isotope analyses. Estuaries and Coasts. 37:986-994.
Lamont, M.M., Fujisaki, I., Carthy, R.R. 2014. Estimates of vital rates for a declining loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) subpopulation: implications for mangement. Marine Biology. 161:2659–2668 DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2537-0
Nomani, S. Z., M. K. Oli, and R.R. Carthy. 2012. Line transects by design: the influence of study design, spatial distribution and density of objects on estimates of abundance. The Open Ecology Journal. 5: 25-44.
Shamblin, B.M., A.B. Bolten, K.A. Bjorndal, P.H. Dutton, J.T. Nielsen, F.A. Abreu-Grobois, K.J. Reich. B.E. Witherington, D.A. Bagley, L.M. Ehrhart, A.D. Tucker, D.S. Addison, A. Arenas, C. Johnson, R.R. Carthy, M.M. Lamont, M.G. Dodd, M.S. Gaines, E. LaCasella, and C.J. Nairn. 2012. Expanded mitochondrial control region sequences increase resolution of stock structure among North Atlantic loggerhead turtle rookeries. Marine Ecology Progress Series,. 469:145-160.
Salmon, M., R. Carthy, C. M.F. Lohmann, K. J. Lohmann, and J. Wyneken. 2012. Collecting a sample of loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings before a natural emergence does not reduce nest productivity. Endangered Species Research. 16: 296-299. doi: 10.3354/esr00409 IP-034556
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Surface time for sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico, 2010-2019
This dataset contains surface dive times, defined as 0-2 m in the water column, for three species of sea turtles (Kemp's ridleys, loggerheads, and green turtles) tracked via satellite telemetry in the Gulf of Mexico during periods within 2010-2019. It contains information on turtle species, location, proportion of time in "surface" bins, region of the Gulf of Mexico, corresponding remotely-sensed
Mangrove distribution in the southeastern United States in 2021
Global climate change is leading to large-scale shifts in species' range limits. For example, rising winter temperatures are shifting the abundance and distributions of tropical, cold sensitive plant species towards higher latitudes. Coastal wetlands provide a prime example of such shifts, with tropical mangrove forests expanding into temperate salt marshes as winter warming alleviates past geogra
Preliminary data from animal borne cameras on loggerhead sea turtles in St. Joseph Bay, Florida (2018-2019)
This is a fifty-four second video which includes short segments compiled from video collected using GoPro cameras mounted on two individual loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) within St. Joseph Bay, Florida as part of a preliminary data release for U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) outreach publications. Approximately 90 minutes of video footage was collected per individual prior to retrieval. This i
Data for herpetofaunal inventories of the national parks of South Florida and the Caribbean: Volume II, Virgin Islands National Park
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) requires the use of ecological indicators to measure the success of restoration efforts. The Everglades amphibian community is ideal because amphibians are present in all habitats and under all hydrologic regimes. During Everglades restoration, hydrologic patterns will change and the response of ecological indicators will determine success. Fo
Filter Total Items: 58
Diet of Dermatemys mawii, an aquatic turtle that relies heavily on terrestrial vegetation
Dermatemys mawii is a critically endangered freshwater turtle endemic to Central America. In the wild, these turtles are thought to be wholly herbivorous as adults and feed on a variety of vegetation; however, no studies have quantitatively assessed potential dietary differences based on biotic and abiotic factors. The purpose of our study was to describe and quantify the wild diet of D. mawii and
Authors
Nichole D. Bishop, John Polisar, Peter J. Eliazar, Raymond Carthy, Karen A. Bjorndal
Green turtle fibropapillomatosis: Tumor morphology and growth rate in a rehabilitation setting
Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a neoplastic disease most often found in green turtles (Chelonia mydas). Afflicted turtles are burdened with potentially debilitating tumors concentrated externally on the soft tissues, plastron, and eyes and internally on the lungs, kidneys, and the heart. Clinical signs occur at various levels, ranging from mild disease to severe debilitation. Tumors can both progress
Authors
Costanza Manes, Richard M. Herren, Annie Page, Faith Dunlap, Chris Skibicki, Devon R. Rollinson Ramia, Jessica A. Farrell, Ilaria Capua, Raymond R. Carthy, David J. Duffy
Accuracy and precision of sea-finding orientation as a function of dune proximity in hatchlings of two species of sea turtles
Context: Sea turtle hatchlings generally emerge at night from nests on sand beaches and immediately orient using visual cues, which are believed to entail the difference in brightness between the light seen in the seaward direction and that seen in the duneward direction.Aim: The aim of this study was to understand how dune proximity affected hatchling orientations in two sea turtle species that s
Authors
Shigetomo Hirama, Blair Witherington, Andrea Sylvia, Raymond Carthy
A coupled human and natural systems framework to characterize emerging infectious diseases: The case of fibropapillomatosis in marine turtles
Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife have markedly increased in the last few decades. Unsustainable, continuous, and rapid alterations within and between coupled human and natural systems have significantly disrupted wildlife disease dynamics. Direct and indirect anthropogenic effects, such as climate change, pollution, encroachment, urbanization, travel, and trade, can promote outbreaks of in
Authors
Costanza Manes, Raymond Carthy, Vanessa Hull
The Bathy-drone: An autonomous unmanned drone-tethered sonar system
A unique drone-based system for underwater mapping (bathymetry) was developed at the University of Florida. The system, called the “Bathy-drone”, comprises a drone that drags, via a tether, a small vessel on the water surface in a raster pattern. The vessel is equipped with a recreational commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) sonar unit that has down-scan, side-scan, and chirp capabilities and logs GPS-
Authors
Antonio L. Diaz, Andrew E. Ortega, Henry Tingle, Andres Pulido, Orlando Cordero, Marisa Nelson, Nicholas E. Cocoves, Jaejeong Shin, Raymond Carthy, Benjamin E. Wilkinson, Peter G. Ifju
Deep and machine learning image classification of coastal wetlands using unpiloted aircraft system multispectral images and lidar datasets
The recent developments of new deep learning architectures create opportunities to accurately classify high-resolution unoccupied aerial system (UAS) images of natural coastal systems and mandate continuous evaluation of algorithm performance. We evaluated the performance of the U-Net and DeepLabv3 deep convolutional network architectures and two traditional machine learning techniques (support ve
Authors
Ali Gonzalez Perez, Amr Abd-Elrahman, Benjamin Wilkinson, Daniel J. Johnson, Raymond Carthy
Tidally-driven gas exchange in beaches: Implications for sea turtle nest success
The success of individual sea turtle nests is influenced by nest location on the beach and the resulting incubation environment. Several abiotic factors affect nest incubation, and thus nest success, but tides and gas exchange are two of the most important. The effects of tides on nest success have been well documented in regard to overwash and inundation events. However, the possible effect of ti
Authors
K.M. Goforth, Raymond Carthy
Gopherus polyphemus (Gopher Tortoise) adult mortality
Gopherus polyphemus has typically high adult survivorship, with some populations reaching a mean annual survivorship of 93.4% (Howell et al. 2019. J. Wildl. Manage. 84:56–65). Instances of adult mortality are not commonly reported outside of large mortality events, and most often result from disease, starvation, dehydration, or chronic stress (Gates et al. 2002. Florida Sci. 65:185–
197; Cozad et
Authors
Michael Palandri, Margaret M. Lamont
Genetic diversity of immature Kemp's ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) sea turtles from the northern Gulf of Mexico
The Kemp’s ridley (Lepidochelys kempii) is the world’s most endangered sea turtle species. Predominately nesting at only one beach in Mexico, this species declined to an estimated 300 females in the mid-1980s. Conservation efforts in the United States and Mexico, including a head start programme in southern Texas in which hatchlings were reared in captivity for several months before being released
Authors
Margaret Lamont, Nickolas Moreno, Fatima Y. Camacho-Sanchez, H. Hugo Acosta-Sanchez, Scott Glaberman, Miguel A. Reyes-Lopez, Ylenia Chiari
Identification of the Gulf of Mexico as an important high-use habitat for leatherback turtles from Central America
Endangered leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) are wide-ranging, long-distance migrants whose movements are often associated with environmental cues. We examined the spatial distribution and habitat use for 33 satellite-tracked leatherbacks from nesting beaches on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama from 2004 to 2018, an important nesting population for the leatherback Northwes
Authors
D.R. Evans, R.A. Valverde, C. Ordoñez, Raymond R. Carthy
Using growth rates to estimate the minimum age and size at sexual maturity in a captive population of the critically endangered Central American river turtle Dermatemys mawii
The Central American river turtle Dermatemys mawii is a critically endangered species that has incurred substantial losses over the last several decades due to overhunting. This species is now being considered for head-starting programs (i.e. captive breeding of turtles for wild release). However, relatively little is known about their life history characteristics, especially with respect to growt
Authors
Nichole D. Bishop, Rick Hudson, Jacob Marlin, Thomas Pop, Thomas R. Rainwater, Shane M. Boylan, Benjamin K. Atkinson, Raymond Carthy
Using systems thinking to inform management of imperiled species: A case study with sea turtles
Management of imperiled species facing spatiotemporally dynamic threats is difficult. Systems thinking can inform their management by quantifying the impacts that they face. We apply systems thinking to the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGM) loggerhead (Caretta caretta) Recovery Unit (RU), one of the smallest subpopulations of loggerheads nesting in the USA. We characterized disturbances to nests, mana
Authors
Ian Silver-Gorges, Simona A. Ceriani, Matthew Ware, Megan Lamb, Margaret Lamont, Janice Becker, Raymond Carthy, Chris Matechik, Joseph C. Mitchell, Raya Pruner, Mike Reynolds, Bradley Smith, Caitlyn Snyder, Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes
Non-USGS Publications**
Williams,N.C., Bjorndal, K. A., Lamont, M.M., Carthy, R.R. 2014. Winter diets of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) on a northern feeding ground: integrating stomach contents and stable isotope analyses. Estuaries and Coasts. 37:986-994.
Lamont, M.M., Fujisaki, I., Carthy, R.R. 2014. Estimates of vital rates for a declining loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) subpopulation: implications for mangement. Marine Biology. 161:2659–2668 DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2537-0
Nomani, S. Z., M. K. Oli, and R.R. Carthy. 2012. Line transects by design: the influence of study design, spatial distribution and density of objects on estimates of abundance. The Open Ecology Journal. 5: 25-44.
Shamblin, B.M., A.B. Bolten, K.A. Bjorndal, P.H. Dutton, J.T. Nielsen, F.A. Abreu-Grobois, K.J. Reich. B.E. Witherington, D.A. Bagley, L.M. Ehrhart, A.D. Tucker, D.S. Addison, A. Arenas, C. Johnson, R.R. Carthy, M.M. Lamont, M.G. Dodd, M.S. Gaines, E. LaCasella, and C.J. Nairn. 2012. Expanded mitochondrial control region sequences increase resolution of stock structure among North Atlantic loggerhead turtle rookeries. Marine Ecology Progress Series,. 469:145-160.
Salmon, M., R. Carthy, C. M.F. Lohmann, K. J. Lohmann, and J. Wyneken. 2012. Collecting a sample of loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings before a natural emergence does not reduce nest productivity. Endangered Species Research. 16: 296-299. doi: 10.3354/esr00409 IP-034556
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.