The complex and ever-changing nature of ecotoxic contaminants, and their impact on marine life, requires a multidisciplinary approach to data collection and analysis to ensure effectiveness for mitigating impacts through management strategies. Green sea turtles have historically been used as proxies for ecological health due to their longevity, site fidelity, and high capacity for accumulating contaminants from their surroundings. This PhD thesis aims to assess contaminants and their implications for green sea turtles, and comprises six chapters: a general thesis introduction, four research data chapters, and a discussion. The research employs a multidisciplinary approach to investigating these patterns, combining field-based sample collections, in vitro bioassays, analysis of spatially extensive datasets, bibliometric analysis of literature, and in-depth health assessments.

Contaminants encompass a broad spectrum of compounds, ranging from organic chemicals and anthropogenic debris (including plastics) to heavy metals. By addressing current knowledge gaps in plastics research and emerging topics of interest, this thesis used a bibliometric analysis to highlight the disparity between terrestrial and marine-based debris research, which observed 13.8 times more research conducted on marine based debris studies than terrestrial counterparts. The importance of public perception and social media use in influencing scientific production was also explored, with Google search interest correlating with a rise in scientific production. This study emphasised the need for source-based investigations to identify land-based drivers of debris in the marine environment.