Somatic growth dynamics of West Atlantic hawksbill sea turtles: a spatio‐temporal perspective

By K. Bjorndal, M. Chaloupka, V. Saba, C. Díez, R. Dam, Barry H. Krueger, J. Horrocks, Armando J. B. Santos, Cláudio Bellini, M. Marcovaldi and 36 more. 2016

121 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Somatic growth dynamics are an integrated response to environmental conditions. Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) are long-lived, major consumers in coral reef habitats that move over broad geographic areas (hundreds to thousands of kilometers). We evaluated spatio-temporal effects on hawksbill growth dynamics over a 33-yr period and 24 study sites throughout the West Atlantic and explored relationships between growth dynamics and climate indices. We compiled the largest ever data set on somatic growth rates for hawksbills - 3541 growth increments from 1980 to 2013. Using generalized additive mixed model analyses, we evaluated 10 covariates, including spatial and temporal variation, that could affect growth rates. Growth rates throughout the region responded similarly over space and time. The lack of a spatial effect or spatio-temporal interaction and the very strong temporal effect reveal that growth rates in West Atlantic hawksbills are likely driven by region-wide forces. Between 1997 and 2013, mean growth rates declined significantly and steadily by 18%. Regional climate indices have significant relationships with annual growth rates with 0-or 1-yr lags: positive with the Multivariate El Nino Southern Oscillation Index (correlation = 0.99) and negative with Caribbean sea surface temperature (correlation = -0.85). Declines in growth rates between 1997 and 2013 throughout the West Atlantic most likely resulted from warming waters through indirect negative effects on foraging resources of hawksbills. These climatic influences are complex. With increasing temperatures, trajectories of decline of coral cover and availability in reef habitats of major prey species of hawksbills are not parallel. Knowledge of how choice of foraging habitats, prey selection, and prey abundance are affected by warming water temperatures is needed to understand how climate change will affect productivity of consumers that live in association with coral reefs.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1e52c645a3c26efecc817bd38492bc44060cb70d

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. G. Hays
2. Bj Godley
3. AC Broderick
4. G. Schofield
5. M. Hamann
6. Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes
7. P. Casale
8. Matthew H. Godfrey

In Global and Planetary Change

1. G. Hays
2. Bj Godley
3. AC Broderick
4. P. Casale
5. G. Schofield
6. M. Hamann
7. A. Rees
8. Matthew H. Godfrey

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. G. Hays
2. Bj Godley
3. AC Broderick
4. P. Casale
5. G. Schofield
6. M. Hamann
7. Mariana M. P. B. Fuentes
8. K. Bjorndal

Citations in the corpus

• Are we working towards global research priorities for management and conservation of sea turtles (2016, background): “…exists a need for assessing the intrinsic variability of demographic parameters (Bjorn - dal et al. 2014, Tucek et al. 2014) and for comparing and combining subpopulation data to capture variabilities of demographic parameters in the wider population (Patrício et al. 2014, Bjorndal et al. 2016).”