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The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles

BACKGROUND: Telemetry and biologging systems, ‘tracking’ hereafter, have been instrumental in meeting the challenges associated with studying the ecology and behaviour of cryptic, wide-ranging marine mega-vertebrates. Over recent decades, globally, sea turtle tracking has increased exponentially, ac...

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Autores principales: Omeyer, Lucy C. M., Fuller, Wayne J., Godley, Brendan J., Snape, Robin T. E., Broderick, Annette C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350314/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30723544
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0145-1
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author Omeyer, Lucy C. M.
Fuller, Wayne J.
Godley, Brendan J.
Snape, Robin T. E.
Broderick, Annette C.
author_facet Omeyer, Lucy C. M.
Fuller, Wayne J.
Godley, Brendan J.
Snape, Robin T. E.
Broderick, Annette C.
author_sort Omeyer, Lucy C. M.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Telemetry and biologging systems, ‘tracking’ hereafter, have been instrumental in meeting the challenges associated with studying the ecology and behaviour of cryptic, wide-ranging marine mega-vertebrates. Over recent decades, globally, sea turtle tracking has increased exponentially, across species and life-stages, despite a paucity of studies investigating the effects of such devices on study animals. Indeed, such studies are key to informing whether data collected are unbiased and, whether derived estimates can be considered typical of the population at large. METHODS: Here, using a 26-year individual-based monitoring dataset on sympatric green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles, we provide the first analysis of the effects of device attachment on reproduction, growth and survival of nesting females. RESULTS: We found no significant difference in growth and reproductive correlates between tracked and non-tracked females in the years following device attachment. Similarly, when comparing pre- and post-tracking data, we found no significant difference in the reproductive correlates of tracked females for either species or significant carry-over effects of device attachment on reproductive correlates in green turtles. The latter was not investigated for loggerhead turtles due to small sample size. Finally, we found no significant effects of device attachment on return rates or survival of tracked females for either species. CONCLUSION: While there were no significant detrimental effects of device attachment on adult sea turtles in this region, our study highlights the need for other similar studies elsewhere and the value of long-term individual-based monitoring. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40462-018-0145-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-63503142019-02-05 The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles Omeyer, Lucy C. M. Fuller, Wayne J. Godley, Brendan J. Snape, Robin T. E. Broderick, Annette C. Mov Ecol Research BACKGROUND: Telemetry and biologging systems, ‘tracking’ hereafter, have been instrumental in meeting the challenges associated with studying the ecology and behaviour of cryptic, wide-ranging marine mega-vertebrates. Over recent decades, globally, sea turtle tracking has increased exponentially, across species and life-stages, despite a paucity of studies investigating the effects of such devices on study animals. Indeed, such studies are key to informing whether data collected are unbiased and, whether derived estimates can be considered typical of the population at large. METHODS: Here, using a 26-year individual-based monitoring dataset on sympatric green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles, we provide the first analysis of the effects of device attachment on reproduction, growth and survival of nesting females. RESULTS: We found no significant difference in growth and reproductive correlates between tracked and non-tracked females in the years following device attachment. Similarly, when comparing pre- and post-tracking data, we found no significant difference in the reproductive correlates of tracked females for either species or significant carry-over effects of device attachment on reproductive correlates in green turtles. The latter was not investigated for loggerhead turtles due to small sample size. Finally, we found no significant effects of device attachment on return rates or survival of tracked females for either species. CONCLUSION: While there were no significant detrimental effects of device attachment on adult sea turtles in this region, our study highlights the need for other similar studies elsewhere and the value of long-term individual-based monitoring. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40462-018-0145-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2019-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC6350314/ /pubmed/30723544 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0145-1 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Omeyer, Lucy C. M.
Fuller, Wayne J.
Godley, Brendan J.
Snape, Robin T. E.
Broderick, Annette C.
The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title_full The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title_fullStr The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title_full_unstemmed The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title_short The effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
title_sort effect of biologging systems on reproduction, growth and survival of adult sea turtles
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6350314/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30723544
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0145-1
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