Journal article
Local Variation in the Internesting Behavior of Green Turtles in the Gulf of Papagayo, Costa Rica
Chelonian conservation and biology, v 18(2)
01 Dec 2019
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Marine turtles often conduct extensive migrations from foraging to breeding habitats. Turtles may spend several months in these breeding habitats, while periodically taking brief excursions onto terrestrial environments to nest. Identification and protection of these breeding habitats over the duration of the reproductive season is therefore vital for the conservation of sea turtles. Here, we used satellite telemetry to investigate the internesting behavior of East Pacific green turtles from 2 nesting beaches: Nombre de Jesus and Playa Cabuyal, located 50 km apart on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. A total of 21 satellite transmitters were deployed at Nombre de Jesus (n = 8) between 2007 and 2009 and at Cabuyal (n = 13) between 2012 and 2015. We found that turtle movements and dive behaviors were notably different between the 2 beaches. Specifically, the turtles from Cabuyal engaged in deeper dives (10 +/- 3 m vs. 6.5 +/- 2 m [mean +/- SD]), presumably because they had access to deeper waters, and had larger minimum convex polygon area (606.5 +/- 1150.5 km(2) vs. 16 +/- 11 km(2)) than turtles from Nombre De Jesus. Turtles from Nombre de Jesus also engaged in shorter dives (6.68 +/- 4.5 min), compared with Cabuyal, where a majority of dives lasted between 10 and 30 min (18.75 +/- 5.6 min). Finally, turtles at Nombre de Jesus dove significantly deeper during the day compared with the night, a pattern that was not present at Cabuyal. We conclude that internesting behaviors can be different even between beaches within the same geographical area. As such, internesting habitat management plans should pay specific attention to potential site-specific variation in internesting behaviors.
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Details
- Title
- Local Variation in the Internesting Behavior of Green Turtles in the Gulf of Papagayo, Costa Rica
- Creators
- Chelsea Clyde-Brockway - Purdue University West LafayetteNathan J. Robinson - The Leatherback Trust, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805 USA [nathanjackrobinson@gmail.com, bibi@leatherback.org]Gabriela S. Blanco - National Scientific and Technical Research CouncilStephen J. Morreale - Cornell UniversityJames R. Spotila - Drexel UniversityPilar Santidrian Tomillo - The Leatherback Trust, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46805 USA [nathanjackrobinson@gmail.com, bibi@leatherback.org]Frank Paladino - Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne
- Publication Details
- Chelonian conservation and biology, v 18(2)
- Publisher
- Allen Press
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- Schrey Distinguished Professorship The Leatherback Trust 1041493; 18466 / Drexel University ACI-PNMB-005-2007; ACT-SASP-PI-195; ACT-OR-D-050; ACCi-Pl038-2012; ACG-PI-023-2013; ACG-PI-050-2014 / Ministry of Environment of Costa Rica Seeds of Change Purdue University Fort Wayne Drexel University Community Foundation Sonoma County Fort Wayne Children's Zoo
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- [Retired Faculty]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000512998400010
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85077210237
- Other Identifier
- 991019169524604721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Zoology