HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. The sun is just rising above the cypress and pine forest as a dozen people step from sweatpants into wetsuits. Masks and fins emerge from trunks. The cicadas are already singing.

A gray pickup with a University of Miami vanity plate pulls in, black Rubbermaid bins piled high in the bed. Jerry Johnston steps out. He is a turtle biologist and the leader of this group, made up of community members and his students at Santa Fe College in nearby Gainesville.

The woods of north Florida are not the first place youd expect to find people suiting up to do turtle research. Were six hours north of Miamis famous sandy beaches and sea turtles, but the Sante Fe River basin is within a globally significant turtle diversity hotspot , home to 14 native species of freshwater turtles . Thats almost as many as the entire Amazon River system , which is more than 2,000 times its size.

Part of what makes this region a great home for turtles is its karst geology limestone that was once the floor of a shallow sea underlies almost the entire state. Freshwater from this limestone aquifer flows to the surface at almost 50 freshwater springs along 23 miles of the lower Santa Fe River. These springs are direct links between the river and the underlying aquifer, which provides drinking water to more than 90% of Floridians . The springs have historically supported lush underwater meadows of native grasses on which many of the turtles subsist.