Fibropapillomatosis in stranded green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Florida: 20 years of spatiotemporal trends and associations with environmental factors

Fibropapillomatosis (FP) is a tumor disease that has reached panzootic proportions in green turtles (Chelonia mydas). FP is associated with chelonid alphaherpesvirus 5, although the etiology of FP is likely multifactorial, since high FP prevalence is often observed in degraded habitats. However, specific environmental cofactors for tumor development remain unknown. To explore this, I collated statewide green turtle stranding data from 2000–2020 to evaluate spatiotemporal trends of FP in Florida, and co-analyzed these data alongside patterns of river flow, chlorophyll-a (Chla), sea surface temperature (SST), El Niño (ENSO), and red tide (HAB). I found that FP was stable during 2000–2020. HAB (positively) and SST (negatively) correlated with statewide FP prevalence, as well as several interactions between various factors. These results suggest that SST and HABs may act as cofactors in the development of FP, and future work should be equally interdisciplinary in their investigation of this multifactorial disease