Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species
With some taxa, a reduction in the mean size of individuals may reflect over-harvesting and/or trophy hunting. However, we show that in sea turtles, a reduction in the mean size of breeding individuals may be part of the good news story of an expanding population. We describe a 70-fold increase in a...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:9174726 2023-05-15T17:33:37+02:00 Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species Hays, Graeme C. Taxonera, Albert Renom, Berta Fairweather, Kirsten Lopes, Anice Cozens, Jacquie Laloë, Jacques-Olivier 2022-06-08 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9174726/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35673864 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9174726/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35673864 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696 © 2022 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 Global Change and Conservation Text 2022 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696 2022-06-19T00:35:36Z With some taxa, a reduction in the mean size of individuals may reflect over-harvesting and/or trophy hunting. However, we show that in sea turtles, a reduction in the mean size of breeding individuals may be part of the good news story of an expanding population. We describe a 70-fold increase in annual nest numbers on the island of Sal (Cape Verde, North Atlantic) between 2008 and 2020 (from 506 to 35 507 nests), making this now one of the largest loggerhead (Caretta caretta) nesting aggregations in the world. We use 20 128 measurements of the size of nesting turtles to show that their mean annual size has decreased by about 2.4 cm, from 83.2 to 80.8 cm. This decrease in the mean size of nesting turtles was not caused by the removal of larger turtles, for example by selective harvesting. Rather we develop a theoretical model to show than this decrease in mean size can be explained by an influx of first-time nesters, combined with a decrease in the size of those first-time nesters over time. A reduction in mean size of nesting turtles has been reported across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and may be a common feature of population recoveries in sea turtles. Text North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Indian Pacific Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 289 1976 |
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ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Global Change and Conservation |
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Global Change and Conservation Hays, Graeme C. Taxonera, Albert Renom, Berta Fairweather, Kirsten Lopes, Anice Cozens, Jacquie Laloë, Jacques-Olivier Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
topic_facet |
Global Change and Conservation |
description |
With some taxa, a reduction in the mean size of individuals may reflect over-harvesting and/or trophy hunting. However, we show that in sea turtles, a reduction in the mean size of breeding individuals may be part of the good news story of an expanding population. We describe a 70-fold increase in annual nest numbers on the island of Sal (Cape Verde, North Atlantic) between 2008 and 2020 (from 506 to 35 507 nests), making this now one of the largest loggerhead (Caretta caretta) nesting aggregations in the world. We use 20 128 measurements of the size of nesting turtles to show that their mean annual size has decreased by about 2.4 cm, from 83.2 to 80.8 cm. This decrease in the mean size of nesting turtles was not caused by the removal of larger turtles, for example by selective harvesting. Rather we develop a theoretical model to show than this decrease in mean size can be explained by an influx of first-time nesters, combined with a decrease in the size of those first-time nesters over time. A reduction in mean size of nesting turtles has been reported across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, and may be a common feature of population recoveries in sea turtles. |
format |
Text |
author |
Hays, Graeme C. Taxonera, Albert Renom, Berta Fairweather, Kirsten Lopes, Anice Cozens, Jacquie Laloë, Jacques-Olivier |
author_facet |
Hays, Graeme C. Taxonera, Albert Renom, Berta Fairweather, Kirsten Lopes, Anice Cozens, Jacquie Laloë, Jacques-Olivier |
author_sort |
Hays, Graeme C. |
title |
Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
title_short |
Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
title_full |
Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
title_fullStr |
Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
title_full_unstemmed |
Changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
title_sort |
changes in mean body size in an expanding population of a threatened species |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9174726/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35673864 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696 |
geographic |
Indian Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Indian Pacific |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Proc Biol Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9174726/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35673864 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0696 |
op_rights |
© 2022 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.2022.0696 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
289 |
container_issue |
1976 |
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1766132182290530304 |