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Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands
Green turtles are megaherbivores with a key role in the dynamics of tropical seagrass meadows, but little is known about their relevance as herbivores in tropical reef habitats. We conducted underwater censuses of green turtles, herbivorous fishes and sea urchins in two distinct tropical regions: Fe...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2020
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6992160/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31999812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228548 |
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author | Cardona, Luis Campos, Patricia Velásquez-Vacca, Adriana |
author_facet | Cardona, Luis Campos, Patricia Velásquez-Vacca, Adriana |
author_sort | Cardona, Luis |
collection | PubMed |
description | Green turtles are megaherbivores with a key role in the dynamics of tropical seagrass meadows, but little is known about their relevance as herbivores in tropical reef habitats. We conducted underwater censuses of green turtles, herbivorous fishes and sea urchins in two distinct tropical regions: Fernando de Noronha (Western Atlantic Ocean) and the Hawaiian Archipelago (Central Pacific Ocean), to assess the contribution of green turtles to the total herbivore biomass in shallow reef habitats of tropical oceanic islands. Juvenile green turtles ranging 40–60 cm were observed at most of the surveyed sites, and hence, could be considered typical components of the shallow reef fauna of tropical oceanic islands. Furthermore, they were usually one of the most abundant species of roving herbivores in many of the sites surveyed. However, the biomass of green turtles was usually much lower than the aggregated biomass of fishes or sea urchins, which usually constituted most of the total herbivore biomass. Green turtles made a major contribution to the total herbivore biomass only in sheltered sites with low rugosity, low coral cover and high algal cover. Further investigation on the trophic redundancy between herbivores is required to assess the actual relevance of green turtles in reef ecosystems of oceanic islands, compared to herbivorous fishes and sea urchins, because different herbivores may target different algal resources and complementarity may be needed to maintain ecosystem functioning across large, naturally varied reefscapes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6992160 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69921602020-02-20 Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands Cardona, Luis Campos, Patricia Velásquez-Vacca, Adriana PLoS One Research Article Green turtles are megaherbivores with a key role in the dynamics of tropical seagrass meadows, but little is known about their relevance as herbivores in tropical reef habitats. We conducted underwater censuses of green turtles, herbivorous fishes and sea urchins in two distinct tropical regions: Fernando de Noronha (Western Atlantic Ocean) and the Hawaiian Archipelago (Central Pacific Ocean), to assess the contribution of green turtles to the total herbivore biomass in shallow reef habitats of tropical oceanic islands. Juvenile green turtles ranging 40–60 cm were observed at most of the surveyed sites, and hence, could be considered typical components of the shallow reef fauna of tropical oceanic islands. Furthermore, they were usually one of the most abundant species of roving herbivores in many of the sites surveyed. However, the biomass of green turtles was usually much lower than the aggregated biomass of fishes or sea urchins, which usually constituted most of the total herbivore biomass. Green turtles made a major contribution to the total herbivore biomass only in sheltered sites with low rugosity, low coral cover and high algal cover. Further investigation on the trophic redundancy between herbivores is required to assess the actual relevance of green turtles in reef ecosystems of oceanic islands, compared to herbivorous fishes and sea urchins, because different herbivores may target different algal resources and complementarity may be needed to maintain ecosystem functioning across large, naturally varied reefscapes. Public Library of Science 2020-01-30 /pmc/articles/PMC6992160/ /pubmed/31999812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228548 Text en © 2020 Cardona et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Cardona, Luis Campos, Patricia Velásquez-Vacca, Adriana Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title | Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title_full | Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title_fullStr | Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title_full_unstemmed | Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title_short | Contribution of green turtles Chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
title_sort | contribution of green turtles chelonia mydas to total herbivore biomass in shallow tropical reefs of oceanic islands |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6992160/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31999812 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228548 |
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