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Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation

The cryptic ‘lost years’ of sea turtles challenge conservation efforts due to unknown movements and habitat utilisation of young life stages. Behavioural information strengthens dispersal and habitat utilisation models estimating unidentified movements. In this study, leatherback hatchlings were act...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hoover, Aimee L., Shillinger, George L., Williamson, Sean A., Reina, Richard D., Bailey, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7603482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33128021
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75769-0
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author Hoover, Aimee L.
Shillinger, George L.
Williamson, Sean A.
Reina, Richard D.
Bailey, Helen
author_facet Hoover, Aimee L.
Shillinger, George L.
Williamson, Sean A.
Reina, Richard D.
Bailey, Helen
author_sort Hoover, Aimee L.
collection PubMed
description The cryptic ‘lost years’ of sea turtles challenge conservation efforts due to unknown movements and habitat utilisation of young life stages. Behavioural information strengthens dispersal and habitat utilisation models estimating unidentified movements. In this study, leatherback hatchlings were actively tracked with miniature acoustic tags off the east coast of Costa Rica for 83.15 min (± 9.12 SD) to determine their movements and swimming behaviour. Drifters were deployed throughout the tracking process to obtain surface current data. Hatchling (n = 42) over-ground and in-water swimming speed and bearing were calculated. Mean over-ground distance travelled was 2.03 km (± 0.71 km SD) with an over-ground average swim speed of 0.41 m/s (± 0.15 m/s SD). Mean bearing was 108.08° (± 20.19° SD) compared to the 137.56° (± 44.00° SD) bearing of nearshore ocean currents during tracking. Hatchling mean in-water swimming speed was 0.25 m/s (± 0.09 m/s SD). The lower in-water speed suggests hatchlings were advected by the currents, with overall movement strongly influenced by the current direction. This information can be assimilated into broader spatiotemporal distribution models to interpret the influence of directional swimming on ecosystem utilisation and help to achieve informed management decisions across all life stages of the population.
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spelling pubmed-76034822020-11-03 Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation Hoover, Aimee L. Shillinger, George L. Williamson, Sean A. Reina, Richard D. Bailey, Helen Sci Rep Article The cryptic ‘lost years’ of sea turtles challenge conservation efforts due to unknown movements and habitat utilisation of young life stages. Behavioural information strengthens dispersal and habitat utilisation models estimating unidentified movements. In this study, leatherback hatchlings were actively tracked with miniature acoustic tags off the east coast of Costa Rica for 83.15 min (± 9.12 SD) to determine their movements and swimming behaviour. Drifters were deployed throughout the tracking process to obtain surface current data. Hatchling (n = 42) over-ground and in-water swimming speed and bearing were calculated. Mean over-ground distance travelled was 2.03 km (± 0.71 km SD) with an over-ground average swim speed of 0.41 m/s (± 0.15 m/s SD). Mean bearing was 108.08° (± 20.19° SD) compared to the 137.56° (± 44.00° SD) bearing of nearshore ocean currents during tracking. Hatchling mean in-water swimming speed was 0.25 m/s (± 0.09 m/s SD). The lower in-water speed suggests hatchlings were advected by the currents, with overall movement strongly influenced by the current direction. This information can be assimilated into broader spatiotemporal distribution models to interpret the influence of directional swimming on ecosystem utilisation and help to achieve informed management decisions across all life stages of the population. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7603482/ /pubmed/33128021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75769-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Hoover, Aimee L.
Shillinger, George L.
Williamson, Sean A.
Reina, Richard D.
Bailey, Helen
Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title_full Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title_fullStr Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title_full_unstemmed Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title_short Nearshore neonate dispersal of Atlantic leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
title_sort nearshore neonate dispersal of atlantic leatherback turtles (dermochelys coriacea) from a non-recovering subpopulation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7603482/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33128021
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75769-0
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