(University of Arkansas), L.D. Betz Chair Professor of
Environmental Science
The research interests of my laboratory are centered in the areas of
environmental science, physiological and biophysical ecology,
fisheries biology and ichthyology, as well as conservation biology.
We are studying the thermoregulation of fish, amphibians, and
reptiles that inhabit stressed habitats with the goal of
understanding how constraints imposed by the physical environment
affect the behavior and physiology of ectothermic vertebrates.
Current research involves the physiological and population ecology of
sea turtles, the use of fish as bioindicators of pollution in the
Philadelphia area, the ecology of trout in Valley Forge National
Park, the molecular basis for temperature dependent sex determination
in reptiles, the role of stress proteins in resistance of fish and
amphibians to environmental degradation, the molecular population
genetics of sea turtles, and the impact of development on the ecology
of the La Parguera Marine Reserve in Puerto Rico .
Research expeditions have included the Green Turtle research
expedition aboard the Alpha Helix in Costa Rica and Nicaragua (Aug. -
Sept. 1978), during which Edward Standora, Robert Foley and I carried
out the first successful radio and sonic telemetry from a sea turtle,
along with field research in the southeastern, northeastern,
southwestern, and Midwestern sections of the U.S. In 1980, I led a
multi-university, team research project that elucidated the effect of
temperature-dependent sex determination in sea turtle eggs in Costa
Rica on the conservation of sea turtles. In 1981, Edward Standora and
I conducted a telemetry project on leatherback turtles off Rhode
Island. In 1983 we studied ridley turtle reproduction at Playa
Nancite, Costa Rica. In 1989, my research group carried out
experiments on the physiological ecology of leatherback turtles at
Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Since 1990 we have been studying leatherbacks
at Las Baulas National Park on the Pacific coast and on the Caribbean
coast of Costa Rica and working with local communities and Costa
Rican government authorities to conserve this species.
In 1994 we completed a comprehensive project on the physiological
ecology of the desert tortoise at the Desert Tortoise Conservation
Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Experiments on tortoises in large
enclosures and free ranging tortoises answered questions about the
thermoregulation, physiological responses to stress, reproductive
biology, and behavior of these reptiles. This remains the most
comprehensive study yet conducted on this species.
In 1997 my student Alison Leslie and I completed a three-year study
of the ecology of the Nile crocodile in the Lake St. Lucia estuary in
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She studied the physiological ecology of
eggs, hatchlings and adults as well as the population ecology of
adult and juvenile crocodiles. This included a management plan for
the crocodiles that the Natal Parks Board is using to reduce
conflicts resulting from interactions between indigenous peoples,
recreational fishermen and the crocodiles.
Locally we have worked with the Valley Forge Chapter of Trout
Unlimited to study the ecology of trout and the rest of the aquatic
community in Valley Creek and Valley Forge National Park. This
research has provided the basis for designation of Valley Creek as an
exceptional value stream and in preservation of the watershed. It
also served as a basis for a NSF funded study on the effects of urban
sprawl on the Valley Creek watershed led by Dr. Claire Welty of
Drexel.
All of these projects are focused on studies related to the
physiological ecology of animals that will provide a basis for their
conservation. All of our field projects are conducted in concert with
local conservation organizations and governmental agencies. In
particular, our leatherback project is central to ongoing efforts to
preserve this species.
For the last 11 years my laboratory has also been studying the
ecology of fish and turtles in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and the
fishes, sea turtles, and other aquatic organisms of the New Jersey
coast and Delaware Bay. This has involved fishing by hook and line,
trawling, seining, gill netting, and trammel netting of specimens. We
have also worked cooperatively with pound net fishermen from Newport,
Rhode Island to study fish and leatherback turtles.
Recent Publications
Penick, D. N., F. V. Paladino, A. C. Steyermark, and J. R. Spotila.
1996. Thermal dependence of tissue metabolism in the green turtle,
Chelonia mydas. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 113A: 293-296.
Leslie, A. J., D. N. Penick, J. R. Spotila, and F. V. Paladino.
1996. Leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, nesting and nest
success at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, in 1990-1991. Chelonian
Conservation and Biology 2: 159-168.
Steyermark, A. C., K. Williams, J. R. Spotila, F. V. Paladino, D. C.
Rostal, S. J. Morreale, M. T. Koberg, and R. Arauz. 1996. Nesting
leatherback turtles at Las Baulas National Park, Costa Rica.
Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2: 173-183.
Chaves, A., G. Serrano, G. Marin, E. Arguedas, A. Jimenez, and J. R.
Spotila. 1996. Biology and conservation of leatherback turtles,
Dermochelys coriacea, at Playa Langosta, Costa Rica. Chelonian
Conservation and Biology 2: 184-189.
Rostal, D. C, F. V. Paladino, R. M. Patterson, and J. R. Spotila.
1996. Reproductive physiology of nesting leatherback turtles
(Dermochelys coriacea) at Las Baulas National Park, Costa Rica.
Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2: 230-236.
Paladino, F. V., J. R. Spotila, M. P. O'Connor, and R. E. Gatten, Jr.
1996. Respiratory physiology of adult leatherback turtles
(Dermochelys coriacea) while nesting on land. Chelonian Conservation
and Biology 2: 223-229.
Spotila, J. R., A. E. Dunham, A. J. Leslie, A. C. Steyermark, P. T.
Plotkin, and F. V. Paladino. 1996. Worldwide population decline of
Dermochelys coriacea: are leatherback turtles going extinct?
Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2: 209-222.
Rhodin, J. A. G., A. G. J. Rhodin, and J. R. Spotila. 1996. Electron
microscopic analysis of vascular cartilage canals in the humeral
epiphysis of hatchling leatherback sea turtles, Dermochelys coriacea.
Chelonian Conservation and Biology 2: 250-260.
Morreale, S. J., E. A. Standora, J. R. Spotila, and F. V. Paladino.
1996. Migration corridor for sea turtles. Nature 384: 319-320.
Spotila, J. R., M. P. O'Connor, and F. V. Paladino. 1997. Thermal
Biology, Chapter 11, 299-316. In: Lutz, P. L. and J. A. Musick
(eds.). The Biology of Sea Turtles, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Kemp, S. J. and J. R. Spotila. 1997. Effects of urbanization on brown
trout Salmo trutta, other fishes and macroinvertebrates in Valley
Creek, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Amer. Midland. Natur. 138: 55
68.
Paladino, F. V., J. R. Spotila, and P. Dodson. 1997. A blueprint for
giants: Modeling the physiology of large dinosaurs. Chapter 34,
483-496. In: Farlow, J. O. and M. K. Brett-Surman (eds.). The
Complete Dinosaur, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN.
Spotila, L. D., J. R. Spotila, and S. E. Hall. 1998. Sequence and
expression analysis of WT1 and Sox9 in the red-eared slider turtle,
Trachemys scripta. J. Exp. Zool. 281: 417-427.
Binckley, C. A., J. R. Spotila, K. S. Wilson, and F. V. Paladino.
1998. Sex determination and sex ratios of Pacific leatherback
turtles, Dermochelys coriacea. Copeia 1998: 291-300.
Penick, D. N., J. R. Spotila, M. P. O'Connor, A. C. Steyermark, R. H.
George, C. J. Salice, and F. V. Paladino. 1998. Thermal independence
of muscle tissue metabolism in the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys
coriacea. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 120A: 399-403.
Yu, Z., R. Dickstein, W. E. Magee, and J. R. Spotila. 1998. Heat
shock response in the salamanders Plethodon jordani and Plethodon
cinereus. J. Therm. Biol. 23:259-265.
Steyermark, A. C., J. R. Spotila, D. Gillette, and H. Isseroff. 1999.
Biomarkers indicate health problems in brown bullheads from the
industrialized Schuylkill River, Philadelphia. Trans. Amer. Fish.
Soc.128: 328-338.
Spotila, J. R., R. R. Reina, A. C. Steyermark, P. T. Plotkin, and F.
V. Paladino. 2000. Pacific leatherback turtles face extinction.
NATURE: 405:529-530.
Spotila, J. R. and F. V. Paladino. 2000. Parque Marino Las Baulas:
Conservation lessons from a new
national park and from 45 years of conservation of sea turtles in
Costa Rica. Chapter. in Frankie, G. The Dry Forest of Costa Rica, U.
California Press. In Press.
O'Connor, M. P., et al. 2000. Thermal models. J. Thermal Biology. In
Press.
Baransky, K. R., C. J. Williams, S. E. Encalada, B. W. Bowen, and J.
R. Spotila. 2000. Origin of loggerhead turtles in the Western North
Atlantic as determined by mtDNA analysis. Herpetologica: In
Press.
Steyermark, A. C., & J. R. Spotila. 2000. Effects of maternal
identity and incubation temperature on
snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) metabolism. Physiological and
Biochemical Zoology. 73: 298-306.
Dutra-Clarke, A., J. R. Spotila, and G. Davis. 2000. Molecular
phylogeny of snails of the family Succineidae. Malacologia In
Press.
Leslie, A. J. and J. R. Spotila. 2000. Osmoregulation of the Nile
crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus. Comp. Biochem. Physiology A: In
Press.
Plotkin, P. T. and J. R. Spotila. 2000. Post-nesting migrations of
loggerhead sea turtles Caretta
caretta from Georgia, U.S.A.: Conservation implications for a
genetically distinct stock. Oryx: In Press.
Avery, H. W. and J. R. Spotila. 2000. Proximate constraints in turtle
nutrition: Effects of diet quality on the thermoregulatory behavior
and time budget of the omnivorous turtle, Trachemys scripta.
Herpetologica In Review.
Steyermark, A. C., & J. R. Spotila. Effects of maternal identity
and incubation temperature on snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina)
growth. Journal of Experimental Biology. In Review.
Steyermark, A. C., & J. R. Spotila. Effects of maternal identity
and incubation temperature on hatching and hatchling morphology in
snapping turtles, Chelydra serpentina. Copeia. In Review.
Reina, R. D., Mayor, P. A., Spotila, J. R. & Paladino, F. V..
Nesting ecology of the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea at
Las Baulas National Park, Costa Rica 1988-1999. Copeia In Review.
Bilinski, J. J., Paladino, F. V., Reina, R. D. & Spotila J.R. The
effects of nest environment on calcium mobilization by leatherback
turtle embryos (Dermochelys coriacea) during development. Chel. Cons.
Biol. In Review.
Funded Research
Chiras Corporation, 2000, $151,955, Coordination of desert tortoise
studies, data management and peer review, Ft. Irwin.
U.S. Army Office of Environment, Safety and Occupational Health,
2000, $67,737, Expediting the processing of claims resulting from a
chemical weapons accident. IPA Agreement for Lesca Strickland.
EARTHWATCH, 2000, $50,000, Nesting ecology of the leatherback turtle
in Costa Rica. Co-PI, award to R. Reina.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, $2,482, Center for
Biodiversity and Conservation.
New Jersey Air National Guard, 2000, $1,800, Monitoring of pine
restoration areas, Warren Grove Bombing Range. award to Walter
Bien.
SUNOCO, 2000, $50,000. Effects of crude oil on the ecology, behavior,
physiology, and reproduction of turtles in the John Heinz National
Wildlife Refuge. with Barabara Bell and Vince Saba.
spotiljr@drexel.edu