To assess the potential demographic consequences of alternative juvenile foraging strategies in loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta, we compared habitat selection, movement, size frequency, and diet of juvenile loggerheads in neritic versus oceanic habitats of the North Pacific. Forty juveniles satellite-tracked from neritic habitat revealed utilization distributions 2 orders of magnitude smaller than those of 26 juveniles of the same size class tracked for similar durations from oceanic habitat. Oceanic juveniles traveled significantly further, faster and straighter, experienced lower sea surface temperature and productivity, and consumed prey of much lower energy density, strongly suggesting that the neritic foraging strategy is energetically favorable. These findings combined with those from other studies suggest that the neritic strategy would result in higher growth and eventually higher fecundity. Manipulation of a loggerhead demographic model indicated that small disadvantages in survivorship for neritic juveniles could balance the relatively large advantages in growth and fecundity of the neritic strategy. The oceanic strategy may persist as a slower but safer life history strategy. Our findings underscore the importance of elucidating variation in the ecology and corresponding vital rates of juveniles for modeling, managing, and conserving migratory megafaunal populations.
KEY WORDS: Demography · Ontogeny · Diet · Juvenile · Migration · Habitat use · Utilization distributions
Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 425: [269][270][271][272][273][274][275][276][277][278][279][280] 2011 Smith 1995, Bolnick et al. 2003). Variation in the foraging strategies of juveniles and their resulting vital rates could have profound implications for the demography and conservation of migratory megafauna.Loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta exhibit several life history patterns that make them useful subjects for examining the effects of alternative foraging strategies. During their long juvenile life stage, which lasts upwards of 3 decades (Snover 2002, Heppell et al. 2003, these individuals are opportunistically omnivorous and capable of transoceanic movements. They have no parental care or social structure and they are not tied to a central location for reproduction, enabling them to choose from an ocean-wide range of habitats (Bolten 2003). As juveniles, loggerheads use both oceanic and neritic habitats (Pitman 1990, Polovina et al. 2000, Bolten 2003, McClellan & Read 2007.In the Atlantic Ocean, Caretta caretta have long been thought to undergo an ontogenetic habitat shift from oceanic to neritic habitats upon reaching a size threshold of ~48 cm (Carr 1987, Bolten 2003, though recent data support more flexibility in the large juvenile stage. Based on annual ring spacing in sectioned humeri, Snover (2002) found that large juvenile loggerheads in the Atlantic may experience as much as a 30% increase in growth rates after shifting from oceanic to ner...