publications

**If you have difficulty obtaining any of the papers below, please contact us.**

(Bolding denotes MEC lab members)

IN REVIEW & PREPARATION

Santos AJB, JA Cullen, RNMS Ventura, LM Komoroske, JW White, MMPB Fuentes. From Courtship to Foraging: Movement ecology and behavior of resident and migratory post-breeding male green turtles. Submitted, Marine Ecology Progress Series. 

Silver-Gorges I^#, LM Komoroske, J Adkins⁺, JD Swenson⁺, B Shamblin, D Addison, K Hart, K Mazzarella, T Tucker, and MPB Fuentes. Population structure and genetic stock identification in southeastern United States loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) using genome-wide SNPs. In review, Conservation Genetics.

Dwane C, LM Komoroske, AL Rugila, BP Bentley^, E Rawson^#, E Clark^#, G Nichols, M Newbrey^#, E Bucari, C Yan^#, J Barley, R Horrigan, L McCarthy, N Duncan, AB Juarez Stucker^*, AR Villeneuve, and BS Cheng. Adaptation to warm environments with a fast pace of life in a 2 marine predatory snail. In revision, Ecological Monographs. Preprint available here.

Rugila AL, E Bucari, E Rawson^#, AL Schlaug, LM Komoroske, and BS Cheng. Fast and slow-paced reproductive life history across native and invasive populations of a predatory marine snail. In review, Ecology.

Martin KR , JL Adkins, V Chea, CM Sarkis, KF Phillips, AM Forsman, EE Seney, LM Komoroske, KL Mansfield, AE Savage. Extreme differences in Major Histocompatibility Complex immunogenetic diversity across sea turtle species and gene copies. In revision, Genome Biology and Evolution.

Ramos E^#, T Carrasco-Valenzuela, L Hilgers, A Picorelli, J Sullivan, BP Bentley^{^}, LM Komoroske, M Hiller, MF Nery, HB Shaffer, and CJ Mazzoni. Comparative genomics provides insights into the marine adaptations of turtles. In revision, Molecular Biology and Evolution.

C Bellini, EM Venticinque, MMPB Fuentes, LM Komoroske, MA Marcovaldi, AJB Santos, JCA Thomé, JW White, and LP Colman. Recovery of a green turtle (Chelonia mydas) population on the South Atlantic Island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazil: 35 years of conservation efforts. Submitted, Endangered Species Research.

Lonthair JK, NC Wegner, NA Fangue, JD Swenson, and LM Komoroske. Oxygen consumption, hypoxia tolerance, and temperature sensitivity of Pacific sardine, Sardinops sagax, under different temperature regimes. In preparation.

Lama TM, WE Johnson, LM Komoroske, S DeStefano, J Vashon, and JF Organ. Assessing genomic offset among Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) populations at the trailing edge. In preparation.

PEER REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS

Cullen JA, AJB Santos, JW White, LM Komoroske, G Stahelin, and MPB Fuentes. 2025. Method selection and temporal scale greatly impact ecological inferences on animal behavior states.  Animal Biotelemetry, 13: 39.

Arantes LS, T Brown, D De Panis, SD Whiting, EL LaCasella, GA Carvajal, A Kennedy, D Edmunds, BP Bentley^, J Balacco, C Whelan, N Jain, T Tilley, B O’Toole, P Traore, ED Jarvis, O Berry, PH Dutton, LM Komoroske and CJ Mazzoni. 2025. Haplotype-resolved reference genomes of the sea turtle clade unveil ultra-syntenic genomes with hotspots of divergence. GigaScience, 14: giaf105.

Quennessen V, MMPB Fuentes, LM Komoroske, JW White. 2025. Power analyses to inform clutch sampling design to determine the breeding sex ratio in populations with multiple paternity. PeerJ, 13:e20165.

Phillips KF^, C Eizaguirre, and LM Komoroske. Epigenetic methods for sea turtle research and conservation. In: IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group published the MTSG manual on Research and Management Techniques for the Conservation of Sea Turtles. Eds: A Phillott, M Fuentes and A Rees. Accepted.

Shaughnessy CA, DJ Hall, J Norstog, A Barany, A Regish, D Ferreira-Martins, RM Pelis, JP Breves, LM Komoroske, and SD McCormick. 2025. A Cftr-independent, Ano1/TMEM16A-rich Cl–secreting ionocyte in an ancient vertebrate, the sea lamprey. Journal of Experimental Biology, 228 (7): jeb250110.

Toha AHA, D Lontoh, F Pakiding, AP Prasetyo, LM Komoroske and PH Dutton. 2025. Population structure and genetic diversity of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in Bird’s Head Seascape, Papua-Indonesia. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12:1569466.

Adkins J, KR Martin, J Lynch, SM Banerjee, CD Allen, AE Savage, V Chea, M Rice, TT Jones and LM Komoroske. 2025. Immunogenetic diversity and transcriptomic response to Fibropapillomatosis in Hawaiian green sea turtles. Endangered Species Research, 57:59-80.

Bentley BP, BS Cheng, RS Brennan, JD Swenson, JL Adkins, AR Villeneuve, and LM Komoroske. 2024. Successful invasion into new environments without evidence of rapid adaptation by a predatory marine gastropod. Molecular Ecology, 0:e17575.

Lonthair JK, NC Wegner, BS Cheng, NA Fangue, MJ O’Donnell, AM Regish, JD Swenson, E Argueta, SD McCormick, BH Letcher, and LM Komoroske. The gill oxygen limitation hypothesis remains unsupported by experimental evidence. Response to ‘Testing mechanistic theories must be based on correct interpretations’, 227, jeb248173.

Fernandez NB, LM Komoroske, AJ Danylchuk, C Primack, and BS Cheng. 2024. Damming creates winners and losers: life history traits fail to predict vulnerability in freshwater fishes. Global Ecology and Conservation, e02957.

Lonthair JK, NC Wegner, BS Cheng, NA Fangue, MJ O’Donnell, AM Regish, JD Swenson, E Argueta, SD McCormick, BH Letcher, and LM Komoroske. 2024. Smaller body size under warming is not due to gill-oxygen limitation in a coldwater salmonid. Journal of Experimental Biology, 227 (4): jeb246477. Media coverage of this work & related Washington Post article: Fish are shrinking around the world. Here’s why scientists are worried.

Skelton ZR, LR McCormick, GT Kwan, JK Lonthair, C Neira, SM Clements, TR Martz, PJ Bresnahan, U Send, SN Giddings, JC Sevadjian, S Jaeger, A Feit, BW Frable, PJ Zerofski, M Torres, JA Crooks, J McCullough, ML Carter, E Ternon, LP Miller, GM Kalbach, DC Wheeler, PE Parnell, KM Swiney, G Seibert, JJ Minich, JR Hyde, PA Hastings, JE Smith, LM Komoroske, M Tresguerres, LA Levin, and NC Wegner. 2024. Organismal responses to deteriorating water quality during the historic 2020 red tide off Southern California. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene: 12 (1): 00067.

Swenson JD, E Brooks, D Kacev, C Boyd, M Kinney, B Marcy-Quay, A Sévêque, K Feldheim, and LM Komoroske. 2024. Evaluating the Sensitivity and Flexibility of Close-Kin Mark-Recapture Models for Elasmobranch Abundance Estimation. Ecology & Evolution, 14: e10854.

Sévêque A, R Lonsinger, L Waits, K Brzeski, LM Komoroske, C Ott-Conn, S Mayhew, C Norton, T Petroelje, Tyler; JD Swenson, and D Morin. Sources of bias in applying close-kin mark–recapture to terrestrial game species with different demography and life history. Ecology (early online).

Fuentes MPB, E McMichael, CY Kot, I Silver-Gorges, BP Wallace, BJ Godley, AML Brooks, SA Ceriani, AA Cortés-Gómez, TM Dawson, KL Dodge, M Flint, MP Jensen, LM Komoroske, S Kophamel, MD Lettrich, CA Long, SE Nelms, AR Patrício, NJ Robinson, JA Seminoff, M Ware, ER Whitman, D Chevallier, CE Clyde-Brockway, SA Korgaonkar, A Mancini, J Mello-. Fonseca, JR Monsinjon, I Neves-Ferreira, AA Ortega, SH Patel, JB Pfaller, MD Ramirez, C Raposo, CE Smith, FA Abreu-Grobois, and GC Hays. 2023. Key issues in assessing threats to sea turtles: knowledge gaps and future directions. Endangered Species Research 52: 303-341.

Roden SE, JB Horne, MP Jensen, NN FitzSimmons, GH Balazs, J Cruce Horeg, J Hapdei, M Heidemeyer, TT Jones, LM Komoroske, CJ Limpus, S Murakawa, R Piedra, L Sarti-Martinez, T Summers, P Zárate, and PH Dutton. 2023. Population structure of Pacific green turtles: a new perspective from microsatellite DNA variation. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10.

Bentley BP, T Carrasco-Valenzuela, EKS Ramos, H Pawar, LS Arantes, A Alexander, SM Banerjee, …(et al.) C Mazzoni, and LM Komoroske. 2022. Divergent sensory and immune gene evolution in sea turtles with contrasting demographic and life histories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 120 (7) e2201076120. Press coverage of this work: UMass Amherst highlighted story, PNAS ‘in this issue’ and, NOAA popular press story.

Komoroske LM and K Birnie-Gauvin. 2022. On the conservation physiology of fishes for tomorrow (Chapter 12). In: Fish Physiology, Conservation Physiology for the Anthropocene – Issues and Applications (Volume 39B in the Fish Physiology series). Eds: NA Fangue, SJ Cooke, AP Farrell, CJ Brauner, and EJ Eliason. Elsevier, Cambridge, MA.

Dahn HA, J Mountcastle, J Balacco, S Winkler, I Bista, AD Schmitt,  OV Pettersson,  G Formenti, K Oliver, M Smith, W Tan, A Kraus, S Mac, LM Komoroske, T Lama, AJ Crawford,  RW Murphy, S Brown, AF Scott,  PA Morin, ED Jarvis,  and O Fedrigo. 2022. Benchmarking ultra-high molecular weight DNA preservation methods for long-read and long-range sequencing. GigaScience 11: giac068.

Bitter M, J Wong, H Dam, S Donelan, C Kenkel, LM Komoroske, K Nickols, E Rivest, S Salinas, S Burgess, and K Lotterhos. 2021. Fluctuating selection and global change: a synthesis and review on disentangling the roles of climate amplitude, predictability, and novelty. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288: 20210727.

Villeneuve A, LM Komoroske, and BS Cheng. 2021. Environment and phenology shape local adaptation in thermal performance. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288: 20210741.

Villeneuve A, LM Komoroske, and BS Cheng. 2021. Diminished warming tolerance and plasticity in low latitude populations of a marine gastropod. Conservation Physiology. 9(1): coab039.

Seminoff JA, LM Komoroske, D Amorocho, R Arauz, D Chacón-Chaverrí, N de Paz, PH Dutton, M Donoso, M Heidemeyer, G Hoeffer, TT Jones, S Kelez, GE Lemons, JM Rguez-Baron, L Sampson, L Santos Baca, T Steiner, M Vejar Rubio, P Zárate, A Zavala-Norzagaray, and BN Popp. 2021. Large-scale patterns of green turtle trophic ecology in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Ecosphere. 12(6):e03479.

Banerjee SM, JA Stoll, CD Allen, JM Lynch, HS Harris, L Kenyon, RE Connon, E Sterling, E Naro-Maciel, K McFadden, M Lamont, J Benge, N Fernandez, JA Seminoff_, SR Benson, RL Lewison, T Eguchi, T Summers, J Hapdei, MR Rice, S Martin, TT Jones, PH Dutton, GH Balazs, and LM Komoroske. 2021. Species and population specific gene expression in blood transcriptomes of marine turtles. BMC Genomics. 22:346.

Marancik D, J Perrault, LM Komoroske, JA Stoll, K Kelley, and C Manire. Plasma proteomics of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) reveals pathway shifts and potential biomarker candidates associated with health and disease. 2021. Conservation Physiology. 9(1):coab018.

Komoroske LM, KM Jeffries, A Whitehead, J Roach, RE Connon, C Verhille, S Brander, and NA Fangue. 2021. Transcriptional flexibility during thermal challenge corresponds with expanded thermal tolerance in an invasive compared to native fish. Evolutionary Applications 14:931–949.

Townsend K, J Ness, J Hoguet, NI Stacy, LM Komoroske and JM Lynch. 2020. Testing the Stability of Plasma Protein and Whole Blood RNA in Archived Blood of Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Caretta caretta. Biopreservation and Biobanking. 18(5):358-366.

Barraza AD, LM Komoroske, CD Allen, T Eguchi, R Gossett, E Holland, DD Lawson, RA LeRoux, V Lorenzi, JA Seminoff and CG Lowe. 2020. Persistent organic pollutants in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabiting two urbanized Southern California habitats. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 153: 100979.

Banerjee SM, LM Komoroske, A Frey, B Hancock-Hanser, PA Morin, FI Archer, S Roden, A Gaos, MJ Liles, and PH Dutton. 2019. Single nucleotide polymorphism markers for genotyping hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata). Conservation Genetics Resources 12: 353–356.

Banerjee SM, CD Allen, T Schmitt, BS Cheng, T Eguchi, JA Seminoff and LM Komoroske. 2019. Baseline health parameters of eastern Pacific green turtles at Southern California foraging grounds. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 18(2): 163-174.

Barraza A, LM Komoroske, CD Allen, T Eguchi, R Gossett, E Holland, DD Lawson, RA LeRoux, A Long, JA Seminoff and CG Lowe. 2019. Trace metals in green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) inhabiting two southern California Coastal Estuaries. Chemosphere, 223: 342-350.

Komoroske LM, M Miller, S O’Rourke, KR Stewart, MP Jensen and PH Dutton. 2019. A Versatile Rapture (RAD-Capture) Platform for Genotyping Marine Turtles. Molecular Ecology Resources, DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.12980.

Davis B, Komoroske LM, Hansen M, Poletto J, Perry E, Miller N, Ehlman S, Wheeler SG, Sih A, Todgham A, Fangue NA. 2018. Juvenile rockfish show resilience to CO2-acidification and hypoxia across multiple biological scales.  Conservation Physiology 6 (1): coy038.

Komoroske, LM. 2018. The future is female. Is that a problem for sea turtle conservation?* Conservation Physiology 6 (1): coy009. *Invited commentary on Jensen et al. (2018) for ‘Conservation Physiology in Action’ section.

Connon RE, KM Jeffries, LM Komoroske, AE Todgham and NA Fangue. 2018. The utility of transcriptomics in fish conservation. Journal of Experimental Biology, doi:10.1242/jeb.148833

Komoroske LM, MP Jensen, KR Stewart, BM Shamblin, and PH Dutton. 2017. Advances in the application of genetics in marine turtle biology and conservation. Frontiers in Marine Science, Marine Conservation & Sustainability 4:156.

Komoroske LM. The costs of being big in a warmer world*. 2017. Conservation Physiology.  5 (1): cox022. *Invited commentary on Messmer et al. (2016) for ‘Conservation Physiology in Action’ section.

Cheng BS, LM Komoroske, Grosholz ED. 2016. Trophic sensitivity and the ecological context of invasive predator and native prey interactions. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.12759. Featured on Capital Public Radio & UC Davis News.

Komoroske LM, KM Jeffries, RE Connon, J Dexter*, M Hasenbein, C Verhille, and NA Fangue. 2016. Sublethal costs of salinity stress contribute to habitat limitation in an endangered estuarine fish. Evolutionary Applications 9 (8): 963-981.
*undergraduate co-author

Jeffries KM, RE Connon, BE Davis, LM Komoroske, MT Britton, T Sommer, AE Todgham and NA Fangue. 2016. The effects of high temperatures on threatened estuarine fishes. Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 1705-1716.
Selected as ‘Inside JEB’ featured article with press summary.

Hasenbein M, NA Fangue, J Geist, LM Komoroske, J Truong, R McPherson, and RE Connon. 2016. Assessments at multiple levels of biological organization allow for an integrative determination of physiological tolerances to turbidity in an endangered fish species. Conservation Physiology 4 (1): cow004.

Brown LR, LM Komoroske, RW Wagner, T Morgan-King, JT May, RE Connon, and NA Fangue. 2016. Coupled downscaled climate models and ecophysiological metrics forecast habitat compression for an endangered estuarine fish. PloSOne 11(1): e0146724.

Komoroske LM and RL Lewison. 2015. Addressing fisheries bycatch in a changing world. Frontiers in Marine Science, Global Change and the Future Ocean 2 (83): 1-11.

Komoroske LM, RE Connon, KM Jeffries, and NA Fangue. 2015. Linking transcriptional responses to organismal tolerance reveals mechanisms of thermal sensitivity in a mesothermal endangered fish. Molecular Ecology 24 (19): 4960–4981.

Hasenbein M, NA Fangue, J Geist, LM Komoroske, RE Connon. 2016. Physiological stress biomarkers reveal stocking density effects in late larval delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus). Aquaculture 450: 108-115.

Jeffries KM, LM Komoroske, J Truong, I Werner, S Hasenbein, M Hasenbein, NA Fangue, and RE Connon. 2015. The transcriptome-wide effects of exposure to a pyrethroid pesticide on the critically endangered delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus). Endangered Species Research 28: 43-60.

Komoroske LM, SO Hameed, AI Szoboszlai, AJ Newsom, and SL Williams. 2015. A Scientist’s Guide to Achieve ‘Broader Impacts’ through K-12 STEM Collaboration. BioScience 65 (3): 313-322.

Komoroske LM, RE Connon, J Lindberg, BS Cheng, G Castillo, M Hasenbein and NA Fangue. 2014. Ontogeny influences sensitivity to climate change stressors in an endangered fish. Conservation Physiology 2: cou008-cou008.

M Hasenbein*, LM Komoroske*, RE Connon, J Geist and NA Fangue. 2013. Turbidity and salinity affect feeding performance and physiological stress in the endangered delta smelt. Integrative and Comparative Biology 53 (4): 620-634. (*equal contribution of authors). Featured as journal cover page

Komoroske LM, RL Lewison, JA Seminoff, DH Deustchman and DD Deheyn. 2012. Trace metals in an urbanized estuarine sea turtle food web. Science of the Total Environment 417-418: 108-116.

Komoroske LM, RL Lewison, DD Deheyn, JA Seminoff, and PH Dutton. 2011. Pollutants and the health of sea turtles resident to an urbanized estuary. Chemosphere 84: 544-552.

Lemons G, RL Lewison, LM Komoroske, A Gaos, C Lai, and JA Seminoff. 2011. Trophic ecology of green sea turtles in a highly urbanized bay: insights from stable isotopes and mixing models. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 405: 25-32.

ADDITIONAL PUBLICATIONS & SELECTED SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Bentley BP, PH Dutton, and LM Komoroske. 2020. What Makes a Sea Turtle? The State of the World’s Sea Turtles Report Vol. 16. https://www.seaturtlestatus.org/articles/swot-report-16-what-makes-a-sea-turtle

Copsey, J., (…) LM Komoroske, (…) et al. 2021. Eastern Pacific Leatherback Turtle: Ex situ Management Recommendation Development Workshop Report. IUCN SSC Conservation Planning Specialist Group, Apple Valley, MN, USA.

Komoroske LM. From Sky to Sea: Studying sea turtles amid warming waters. NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region news website featured article, December 2015. *Featured on the Ocean Connectors website.

Komoroske LM. Ocean Week Invited Keynote Speaker, Solana Beach School District, May 2015.

Komoroske LM, RL Lewison, C Mull and AZ Mason. 2009. Contaminants and protein regulation in green turtles in San Diego Bay. IIRMES Annual Report, pp. 40-42.

Lewison RL, CT Lai, JA Seminoff, DD Deheyn, J Fournier, A Gaos, E Hoh, LM Komoroske, G Lemons. 2011. Chemical analysis of threatened and endangered species in San Diego: The San Diego Bay trophic transfer project. Final Report to the Port of San Diego, 28 pp.