Genetic Structure Of Florida Green Turtle Rookeries As Indicated By Mitochondrial Dna Control Region Sequences

• Main Authors: Shamblin, Brian M., Bagley, Dean A., Ehrhart, Llewellyn M., Desjardin, Nicole A., Martin, R. Erik
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: STARS 2015
• Subjects: Chelonia mydas; Haplotype; Mitochondrial DNA; Population structure; Sea turtle; Jupiter; Jupiter Island; Hutchinson Island
• Online Access: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2015/1093

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting has increased dramatically in Florida over the past two decades, ranking the Florida nesting aggregation among the largest in the Greater Caribbean region. Individual beaches that comprise several hundred kilometers of Florida’s east coast and Keys support tens to thousands of nests annually. These beaches encompass natural to highly developed habitats, and the degree of demographic partitioning among rookeries was previously unresolved. We characterized the genetic structure of ten Florida rookeries from Cape Canaveral to the Dry Tortugas through analysis of 817 base pair mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences from 485 nesting turtles. Two common haplotypes, CM-A1.1 and CM-A3.1, accounted for 87 % of samples, and the haplotype frequencies were strongly partitioned by latitude along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Most genetic structure occurred between rookeries on either side of an apparent genetic break in the vicinity of the St. Lucie Inlet that separates Hutchinson Island and Jupiter Island, representing the finest scale at which mtDNA structure has been documented in marine turtle rookeries. Florida and Caribbean scale analyses of population structure support recognition of at least two management units: central eastern Florida and southern Florida. More thorough sampling and deeper sequencing are necessary to better characterize connectivity among Florida green turtle rookeries as well as between the Florida nesting aggregation and others in the Greater Caribbean region.