Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic
Sea turtles bask at the ocean surface, but little is known about the patterns and ecological context of surface behavior in the wild. This study investigated the surface behavior of ten juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (34 - 58 cm straight carapace length) satellite tagged in Madeira, in the pelagic...
Published in: | Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology |
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3380 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 |
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ftunivmadeira:oai:digituma.uma.pt:10400.13/3380 2023-06-11T04:14:35+02:00 Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic Freitas, Carla Caldeira, Rui Dellinger, Thomas 2019 http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3380 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 eng eng Elsevier Freitas, C., Caldeira, R., & Dellinger, T. (2019). Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic. Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 510, 73-80. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3380 doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Argos Biologging Basking Caretta caretta First passage time Satellite telemetry Faculdade de Ciências da Vida article 2019 ftunivmadeira https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 2023-05-28T07:05:35Z Sea turtles bask at the ocean surface, but little is known about the patterns and ecological context of surface behavior in the wild. This study investigated the surface behavior of ten juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (34 - 58 cm straight carapace length) satellite tagged in Madeira, in the pelagic eastern North Atlantic. During a total of 2273 tracking days, turtles moved through oceanic areas with a mean depth of ~3400 m. On average, turtles spent one third of the time at the surface (0 - 1 m depth), spending 43% of the time at the surface during the day and 29% of the time during the night. Generalized linear mixed modelling showed that the proportion of time at the surface was significantly larger during the day, particularly during spring and summer. Time spent at the surface during the day increased with elevated air temperatures and weak winds, probably to maximize the benefits of solar absorption. Conversely, the probability of being at the surface during the day decreased as horizontal search effort increased, suggesting a trade-off between basking and daytime foraging activities. At night, time spent at the surface was not associated with air temperature or wind speed but was instead positively associated with moon illumination. As turtles tend to dive deeper during clear nights, increased surface time may be needed to recover from deeper dives. This study presents important aspects of the behavioral ecology of the species during the oceanic juvenile phase. The findings reported here may be relevant for species management and conservation, including correction of census data and management of interactions with surface fishing gear and other anthropogenic activities. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic Universidade da Madeira: DigitUMa Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 510 73 80 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Universidade da Madeira: DigitUMa |
op_collection_id |
ftunivmadeira |
language |
English |
topic |
Argos Biologging Basking Caretta caretta First passage time Satellite telemetry Faculdade de Ciências da Vida |
spellingShingle |
Argos Biologging Basking Caretta caretta First passage time Satellite telemetry Faculdade de Ciências da Vida Freitas, Carla Caldeira, Rui Dellinger, Thomas Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
topic_facet |
Argos Biologging Basking Caretta caretta First passage time Satellite telemetry Faculdade de Ciências da Vida |
description |
Sea turtles bask at the ocean surface, but little is known about the patterns and ecological context of surface behavior in the wild. This study investigated the surface behavior of ten juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (34 - 58 cm straight carapace length) satellite tagged in Madeira, in the pelagic eastern North Atlantic. During a total of 2273 tracking days, turtles moved through oceanic areas with a mean depth of ~3400 m. On average, turtles spent one third of the time at the surface (0 - 1 m depth), spending 43% of the time at the surface during the day and 29% of the time during the night. Generalized linear mixed modelling showed that the proportion of time at the surface was significantly larger during the day, particularly during spring and summer. Time spent at the surface during the day increased with elevated air temperatures and weak winds, probably to maximize the benefits of solar absorption. Conversely, the probability of being at the surface during the day decreased as horizontal search effort increased, suggesting a trade-off between basking and daytime foraging activities. At night, time spent at the surface was not associated with air temperature or wind speed but was instead positively associated with moon illumination. As turtles tend to dive deeper during clear nights, increased surface time may be needed to recover from deeper dives. This study presents important aspects of the behavioral ecology of the species during the oceanic juvenile phase. The findings reported here may be relevant for species management and conservation, including correction of census data and management of interactions with surface fishing gear and other anthropogenic activities. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Freitas, Carla Caldeira, Rui Dellinger, Thomas |
author_facet |
Freitas, Carla Caldeira, Rui Dellinger, Thomas |
author_sort |
Freitas, Carla |
title |
Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
title_short |
Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
title_full |
Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic |
title_sort |
surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern north atlantic |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3380 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
Freitas, C., Caldeira, R., & Dellinger, T. (2019). Surface behavior of pelagic juvenile loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern North Atlantic. Journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 510, 73-80. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/3380 doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 |
op_rights |
openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2018.10.006 |
container_title |
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology |
container_volume |
510 |
container_start_page |
73 |
op_container_end_page |
80 |
_version_ |
1768392702189109248 |