Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Compared with our understanding of most aspects of sea turtle biology, knowledge of the surface-pelagic juvenile life stages remains limited. Young North Atlantic cheloniids (hard-shelled sea turtles) are closely associated with surface-pelagic drift communities (SPDCs), which are dominated by macro...
Published in: | IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing |
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Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2000 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 |
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ftusouthflorida:oai:digitalcommons.usf.edu:msc_facpub-2931 2023-07-30T04:05:21+02:00 Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico Hardy, Robert F. Hu, Chuanmin Witherington, Blair Lapointe, Brian Meylan, Anne Peebles, Ernst Meirose, Leo Hirama, Shigetomo 2018-10-01T07:00:00Z https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2000 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 unknown Digital Commons @ University of South Florida https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2000 doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 Marine Science Faculty Publications Sea surface Remote sensing Earth Artificial satellites Image resolution Oceanography Life Sciences article 2018 ftusouthflorida https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 2023-07-13T21:02:55Z Compared with our understanding of most aspects of sea turtle biology, knowledge of the surface-pelagic juvenile life stages remains limited. Young North Atlantic cheloniids (hard-shelled sea turtles) are closely associated with surface-pelagic drift communities (SPDCs), which are dominated by macroalgae of the genus Sargassum. We quantified SPDCs in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, a region that hosts four species of cheloniids during their surface-pelagic juvenile stage. Landsat satellite imagery was used to identify and measure the areal coverage of SPDCs in the eastern Gulf during 2003-2011 (1323 images). Although the SPDC coverage varied annually, seasonally, and spatially, SPDCs were present year-round, with an estimated mean area of SPDC in each Landsat image of 4.9 km 2 (SD = 10.1). The area of SPDCs observed was inversely proportional to sea-surface wind velocity (Spearman's r = -0.33, p <; 0.001). The SPDC coverage was greatest during 2005, 2009, and 2011 and least during 2004 and 2010, but the 2010 analysis was affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred within the study region. In the eastern Gulf, the area of SPDC peaked during June-August of each year. Although the SPDC coverage appeared lower in the eastern Gulf than in other regions of the Gulf and the North Atlantic, surface-pelagic juvenile green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, and loggerhead turtles were found to be using this habitat, suggesting that eastern Gulf SPDCs provide developmental habitats that are critical to the recovery of four sea turtle species. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic University of South Florida St. Petersburg: Digital USFSP IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing 11 10 3646 3659 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of South Florida St. Petersburg: Digital USFSP |
op_collection_id |
ftusouthflorida |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Sea surface Remote sensing Earth Artificial satellites Image resolution Oceanography Life Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Sea surface Remote sensing Earth Artificial satellites Image resolution Oceanography Life Sciences Hardy, Robert F. Hu, Chuanmin Witherington, Blair Lapointe, Brian Meylan, Anne Peebles, Ernst Meirose, Leo Hirama, Shigetomo Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
topic_facet |
Sea surface Remote sensing Earth Artificial satellites Image resolution Oceanography Life Sciences |
description |
Compared with our understanding of most aspects of sea turtle biology, knowledge of the surface-pelagic juvenile life stages remains limited. Young North Atlantic cheloniids (hard-shelled sea turtles) are closely associated with surface-pelagic drift communities (SPDCs), which are dominated by macroalgae of the genus Sargassum. We quantified SPDCs in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, a region that hosts four species of cheloniids during their surface-pelagic juvenile stage. Landsat satellite imagery was used to identify and measure the areal coverage of SPDCs in the eastern Gulf during 2003-2011 (1323 images). Although the SPDC coverage varied annually, seasonally, and spatially, SPDCs were present year-round, with an estimated mean area of SPDC in each Landsat image of 4.9 km 2 (SD = 10.1). The area of SPDCs observed was inversely proportional to sea-surface wind velocity (Spearman's r = -0.33, p <; 0.001). The SPDC coverage was greatest during 2005, 2009, and 2011 and least during 2004 and 2010, but the 2010 analysis was affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred within the study region. In the eastern Gulf, the area of SPDC peaked during June-August of each year. Although the SPDC coverage appeared lower in the eastern Gulf than in other regions of the Gulf and the North Atlantic, surface-pelagic juvenile green, hawksbill, Kemp's ridley, and loggerhead turtles were found to be using this habitat, suggesting that eastern Gulf SPDCs provide developmental habitats that are critical to the recovery of four sea turtle species. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hardy, Robert F. Hu, Chuanmin Witherington, Blair Lapointe, Brian Meylan, Anne Peebles, Ernst Meirose, Leo Hirama, Shigetomo |
author_facet |
Hardy, Robert F. Hu, Chuanmin Witherington, Blair Lapointe, Brian Meylan, Anne Peebles, Ernst Meirose, Leo Hirama, Shigetomo |
author_sort |
Hardy, Robert F. |
title |
Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
title_short |
Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
title_full |
Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
title_fullStr |
Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characterizing a Sea Turtle Developmental Habitat Using Landsat Observations of Surface-Pelagic Drift Communities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico |
title_sort |
characterizing a sea turtle developmental habitat using landsat observations of surface-pelagic drift communities in the eastern gulf of mexico |
publisher |
Digital Commons @ University of South Florida |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2000 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Marine Science Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/2000 doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2018.2863194 |
container_title |
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
3646 |
op_container_end_page |
3659 |
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1772817205217460224 |