Hawksbill nest site selection affects hatchling survival at a rookery in Antigua, West Indies

Reising, Megan; Salmon, Michael; Stapleton, Seth

doi:10.3354/esr00708

Cited by 16 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…During our study, all monitoring activities were conducted in coral reef habitats. Coral reefs are known to be the primary habitat for hawksbill turtles worldwide (Meylan & Donnelly, 1999;Wood et al, 2013;Reising et al, 2015), and hawksbills are believed to play an important role in maintaining the health of these systems (Leon & Bjorndal, 2002). Hawksbills have also been identified foraging on coral reefs in other parts of the eastern Pacific (Carrion-Cortez et al, 2013;Heidemeyer et al, 2014;Chacón-Chaverri et al, 2014).…”

Section: Comm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution, size range and growth rates of hawksbill turtles at a major foraging ground in the eastern Pacific Ocean

Llamas¹,

Flores

Abrego

et al. 2017

lajar

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ABSTRACT.Hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) inhabiting the eastern Pacific Ocean are one of the world's most threatened marine turtle management units. Despite the fact that knowledge about the status of sea turtles at foraging grounds is a key element for developing the effective conservation strategies, comprehensive studies of hawksbills at foraging habitats in the eastern Pacific remain lacking. For many years anecdotal information indicated Coiba Island National Park in Panama as a potentially important hawksbill foraging ground, which led to the initiation of monitoring surveys in September 2014. Ongoing mark-recapture surveys to assess population status, generate demographic data and identify key foraging sites have been conducted every six months in the park since that time. To date, a total of six monitoring campaigns consisting of four days each have been conducted, leading to the capture and tagging of 186 hawksbills, 51 of which were recaptured at least once. The size range of captured individuals was 30.0 to 75.5 cm and largely comprised of juveniles. Somatic growth rates of individual hawksbills were highly variable, ranging from -0.78 to 7.1 cm year -1 . To our knowledge, these are the first published growth rates for juvenile hawksbill turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean. When these growth data are combined with information on hawksbill demography and distribution, our findings indicate Coiba Island National Park is one of the most important known foraging sites for hawksbill sea turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

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Section: Comm)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Distribution, size range and growth rates of hawksbill turtles at a major foraging ground in the eastern Pacific Ocean

Llamas¹,

Flores

Abrego

et al. 2017

lajar

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“…Hawksbill hatchlings were obtained during the summer of 2012 as they emerged from nests in Pasture Bay, Long Island, Antigua, West Indies (Lat 17.09N, Long 61.45W). For procedures, see Reising, Salmon, and Stapleton (). Loggerhead hatchlings were obtained as they emerged from nests in Boca Raton, FL (Lat 26.228N, Long 80.078W) during the summers of 2011 and 2012 (see Salmon & Scholl, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The early ontogeny of carapace armoring in hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), with comparisons to its close relatives (Loggerhead, Caretta caretta; Kemp's ridley, Lepidochelys kempii)

Salmon

Coppenrath

Higgins

2018

Journal of Morphology

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In this study, we compare and contrast armoring strategies during early ontogeny among three related species of marine turtles: the hawksbill, a species that diverged about 29 mya from the loggerhead and Kemp's ridley, which diverged from one another about 16 mya. Our purpose was to determine whether there was a correlation between divergence time and the evolution of unique morphological armoring specializations among these species. To find out, we completed a more detailed analysis of shell morphology for all of the species that revealed the following patterns. First, each species has evolved a somewhat different armoring strategy, suggesting that shell morphological evolution is surprisingly flexible. Second, hawksbills possess armoring features that are unique among all marine turtle species, suggesting a correlation between divergence through time and divergence in morphology. However, hawksbills also frequent coral reefs and selection pressures promoting their survival in those habitats may also have shaped their unique morphology. In contrast, loggerhead and Kemp's ridley turtles share similar armoring features that differ primarily in when during ontogeny they appear and in their degree of expression. Third, the armoring adaptations shown generally by juvenile marine turtles resemble those found among marine fishes of comparable size, probably because both small turtles and fishes are exposed to similar predators that promote evolutionarily similar adaptations.

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“…Variation in nesting ecology include variation in nesting season length, clutch frequency, remigration intervals, size of nesting females and clutch size. All of these factors influence regional differences in nesting dynamics [1,2,4,29,30]. Nesting season lengths vary from 5 months to year round in many parts of the world [2,10,28].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nesting ecology of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, in an extreme environmental setting

et al. 2018

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Relatively few details of hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting ecology exist within the Arabian Gulf. Moreover, little is known about how their nesting dynamics compare to nesting populations throughout the rest of the world. Due to the extreme environmental setting, nesting ecology of hawksbills in the Arabian Gulf is of significant interest to researchers and conservationists. The current research reports on a long-term tagging and monitoring program undertaken at Fuwairit beach, Qatar. To investigate nesting behavior, site surveys and tagging were employed from 2010 to 2016. Presence of nests and clutch sizes were confirmed by excavation. Over the entire study period, nesting hawksbills had a mean curved carapace length of 70.8 cm (SD±2.8). A total 187 nests were confirmed, which contained a mean 78.9 eggs per clutch (SD±17.1), over an annual nesting season that lasted an average of 52.2 days (SD±6.3) from the start of April to the start of June. Meta-analysis with other global regions showed these characteristics to be significantly reduced when compared to nesting hawksbills from other populations. Meteorological data analysis showed air temperatures in the Arabian Gulf to increase on average 13.2°C (SD±0.26) from start to the end of nesting annually, which is significantly greater than other global nesting regions. Their smaller body size and reduced fecundity coupled with the extreme change in ambient air temperatures support the hypothesis that hawksbills in the region are more at risk than the already critically endangered hawksbill populations elsewhere in the world.

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Hawksbill nest site selection affects hatchling survival at a rookery in Antigua, West Indies

Cited by 16 publications

References 16 publications

Distribution, size range and growth rates of hawksbill turtles at a major foraging ground in the eastern Pacific Ocean

Distribution, size range and growth rates of hawksbill turtles at a major foraging ground in the eastern Pacific Ocean

The early ontogeny of carapace armoring in hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), with comparisons to its close relatives (Loggerhead, Caretta caretta; Kemp's ridley, Lepidochelys kempii)

Nesting ecology of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, in an extreme environmental setting

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