First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery
In-water behaviour and long-term movements of oceanic-stage juvenile sea turtles are not well described or quantified. This is owing to technological or logistical limitations of tracking small, fast-growing animals across long distances and time periods within marine habitats. Here, we present, to...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8103231 2023-05-15T17:28:59+02:00 First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery Mansfield, Katherine L. Wyneken, Jeanette Luo, Jiangang 2021-05-12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103231/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947237 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103231/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947237 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. CC-BY Proc Biol Sci Behaviour Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 2021-05-30T00:24:01Z In-water behaviour and long-term movements of oceanic-stage juvenile sea turtles are not well described or quantified. This is owing to technological or logistical limitations of tracking small, fast-growing animals across long distances and time periods within marine habitats. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first long-term offshore tracks of oceanic green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in western North Atlantic waters. Using a tag attachment technique developed specifically for young (less than 1 year old) green turtles, we satellite-tracked 21 oceanic-stage green turtles (less than 19 cm straight carapace length) up to 152 days using small, solar-powered transmitters. We verify that oceanic-stage green turtles: (i) travel to and remain within oceanic waters; (ii) often depart the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre currents, orienting towards waters associated with the Sargasso Sea; (iii) remain at the sea surface, using thermally beneficial habitats that promote growth and survival of young turtles; and (iv) green turtles orient differently compared to same stage loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Combined with satellite tracks of oceanic-stage loggerhead turtles, our work identifies the Sargasso Sea as an important nursery habitat for North Atlantic sea turtles, supporting a growing body of research that suggests oceanic-stage sea turtles are behaviourally more complex than previously assumed. Text North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 288 1950 |
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Behaviour |
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Behaviour Mansfield, Katherine L. Wyneken, Jeanette Luo, Jiangang First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
topic_facet |
Behaviour |
description |
In-water behaviour and long-term movements of oceanic-stage juvenile sea turtles are not well described or quantified. This is owing to technological or logistical limitations of tracking small, fast-growing animals across long distances and time periods within marine habitats. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first long-term offshore tracks of oceanic green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in western North Atlantic waters. Using a tag attachment technique developed specifically for young (less than 1 year old) green turtles, we satellite-tracked 21 oceanic-stage green turtles (less than 19 cm straight carapace length) up to 152 days using small, solar-powered transmitters. We verify that oceanic-stage green turtles: (i) travel to and remain within oceanic waters; (ii) often depart the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre currents, orienting towards waters associated with the Sargasso Sea; (iii) remain at the sea surface, using thermally beneficial habitats that promote growth and survival of young turtles; and (iv) green turtles orient differently compared to same stage loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Combined with satellite tracks of oceanic-stage loggerhead turtles, our work identifies the Sargasso Sea as an important nursery habitat for North Atlantic sea turtles, supporting a growing body of research that suggests oceanic-stage sea turtles are behaviourally more complex than previously assumed. |
format |
Text |
author |
Mansfield, Katherine L. Wyneken, Jeanette Luo, Jiangang |
author_facet |
Mansfield, Katherine L. Wyneken, Jeanette Luo, Jiangang |
author_sort |
Mansfield, Katherine L. |
title |
First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
title_short |
First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
title_full |
First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
title_fullStr |
First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
title_full_unstemmed |
First Atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the Sargasso Sea as a sea turtle nursery |
title_sort |
first atlantic satellite tracks of ‘lost years’ green turtles support the importance of the sargasso sea as a sea turtle nursery |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103231/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947237 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Proc Biol Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8103231/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947237 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 |
op_rights |
© 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.0057 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
288 |
container_issue |
1950 |
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1766122291145474048 |