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Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females

Holly J. Stokes, Jeanne A. Mortimer, Graeme C. Hays, Richard K. F. Unsworth, Jacques-Olivier Laloë, Nicole Esteban Orcid Logo

Marine Biology, Volume: 166, Issue: 10

Swansea University Author: Nicole Esteban Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1007/s00227-019-3584-3

Abstract

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are key herbivores of tropical and subtropical neritic habitats and play a major role in structuring seagrass meadows. We present the first detailed assessment of green turtle diet in the Western Indian Ocean using the gut contents of salvaged animals from three atolls...

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Published in: Marine Biology
ISSN: 0025-3162 1432-1793
Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2019
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa52193
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spelling 2020-11-02T12:08:51.4737282 v2 52193 2019-10-01 Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319 0000-0003-4693-7221 Nicole Esteban Nicole Esteban true false 2019-10-01 SBI Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are key herbivores of tropical and subtropical neritic habitats and play a major role in structuring seagrass meadows. We present the first detailed assessment of green turtle diet in the Western Indian Ocean using the gut contents of salvaged animals from three atolls in the Republic of Seychelles separated from each other by 400-825 km: Cosmoledo (adults, n=12), Farquhar (adults, n=33; immature, n=1) collected in 1982-1983; and Desroches (immatures, n=8) in 2016-2018. We report the first comparison of the diets of gravid females (n=17), males (n=26) and non-breeding females (n=2) at sites providing both foraging and breeding habitat. Seagrass (mostly Thalassodendron ciliatum) dominated the diet, accounting for 95% of the mean gut content biomass for males and non-breeding females but only 58% for gravid females, alongside relatively large amounts of substrate (14%) and macroalgae (13%). Satellite tracking of post-nesting green turtles from Chagos Archipelago in 2016 located foraging sites at Farquhar Atoll that coincided with capture locations of 26 of the 33 adult turtles sampled there in 1983. In situ surveys of those sites in 2018 revealed extensive nearly monospecific beds of T. ciliatum. The prominence of seagrass in the diet of green turtles and connectivity between foraging and nesting habitats throughout the region illustrate the need to conserve and monitor seagrass habitats of the Western Indian Ocean especially in the context of changing green turtle population densities. Journal Article Marine Biology 166 10 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 0025-3162 1432-1793 Cheloniidae, conservation, endangered species, Fastloc GPS, herbivore, reptile, seagrass meadows, gut content analysis  1 10 2019 2019-10-01 10.1007/s00227-019-3584-3 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences COLLEGE CODE SBI Swansea University Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science 2020-11-02T12:08:51.4737282 2019-10-01T16:16:36.2484303 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Holly J. Stokes 1 Jeanne A. Mortimer 2 Graeme C. Hays 3 Richard K. F. Unsworth 4 Jacques-Olivier Laloë 5 Nicole Esteban 0000-0003-4693-7221 6 52193__15747__876fd038a3ae4cfd89b270a5922d891e.pdf 52193.pdf 2019-10-29T11:49:32.6446784 Output 1407915 application/pdf Version of Record true Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY). true eng http://creativeco mmons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
spellingShingle Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
Nicole Esteban
title_short Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
title_full Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
title_fullStr Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
title_full_unstemmed Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
title_sort Green turtle diet is dominated by seagrass in the Western Indian Ocean except amongst gravid females
author_id_str_mv fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319
author_id_fullname_str_mv fb2e760b83b4580e7445092982f1f319_***_Nicole Esteban
author Nicole Esteban
author2 Holly J. Stokes
Jeanne A. Mortimer
Graeme C. Hays
Richard K. F. Unsworth
Jacques-Olivier Laloë
Nicole Esteban
format Journal article
container_title Marine Biology
container_volume 166
container_issue 10
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
issn 0025-3162
1432-1793
doi_str_mv 10.1007/s00227-019-3584-3
publisher Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are key herbivores of tropical and subtropical neritic habitats and play a major role in structuring seagrass meadows. We present the first detailed assessment of green turtle diet in the Western Indian Ocean using the gut contents of salvaged animals from three atolls in the Republic of Seychelles separated from each other by 400-825 km: Cosmoledo (adults, n=12), Farquhar (adults, n=33; immature, n=1) collected in 1982-1983; and Desroches (immatures, n=8) in 2016-2018. We report the first comparison of the diets of gravid females (n=17), males (n=26) and non-breeding females (n=2) at sites providing both foraging and breeding habitat. Seagrass (mostly Thalassodendron ciliatum) dominated the diet, accounting for 95% of the mean gut content biomass for males and non-breeding females but only 58% for gravid females, alongside relatively large amounts of substrate (14%) and macroalgae (13%). Satellite tracking of post-nesting green turtles from Chagos Archipelago in 2016 located foraging sites at Farquhar Atoll that coincided with capture locations of 26 of the 33 adult turtles sampled there in 1983. In situ surveys of those sites in 2018 revealed extensive nearly monospecific beds of T. ciliatum. The prominence of seagrass in the diet of green turtles and connectivity between foraging and nesting habitats throughout the region illustrate the need to conserve and monitor seagrass habitats of the Western Indian Ocean especially in the context of changing green turtle population densities.
published_date 2019-10-01T04:04:25Z
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