Subject areas that currently play an important role in Todd's research are bioenergetics and conservation physiology. His research is based on the "fundamental principal that growth rate and metabolic rate are the two most important factors for understanding a species and for managing a species on the brink of extinction". His focus is on: energy partitioning in leatherbacks; determining their total daily metabolism; and the total energy required to build a sexually mature female. Another question he wants to answer is: where does the energy during the life of a leatherback go: growth, osmoregulation, digestion, locomotion, thermoregulation? He needs to know "how resource availability and abundance affects partitioning and the allocation of energy to somatic and reproductive growth". If the resources to somatic and reproductive growth are limited it will slow down the time to sexual maturity and "increase remigration intervals and thus decrease Reproductive Output, ultimately leading to population decline." This is the data that is important to Todd as he seeks detailed information about demographics, the time turtles spend at certain age classes and their habitats.