Abstract
ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 26:221-234 (2015) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00625 Dispersal and dive patterns during the post-nesting migration of olive ridley turtles from French Guiana Virginie Plot1,2,4,*, Benoit de Thoisy3, Jean-Yves Georges1,2 1Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien (IPHC), Université de Strasbourg, Strasbourg 67087, France 2CNRS, UMR 7178, Strasbourg 67087, France 3Kwata Association, 16 avenue Louis Pasteur, 97335 Cayenne, French Guiana 4Present address: Université de la Réunion, Laboratoire ECOMAR, 97715 Saint Denis, Ile de la Réunion, France *Corresponding author: v.plot@hotmail.fr ABSTRACT: Behavioral plasticity allows migrating animals to adjust their migration patterns in relation to the environmental conditions they encounter during their movements. Sea turtles display long post-nesting migrations which vary considerably between species and populations. To date, there has been no description of migratory patterns of the large population of olive ridley turtles Lepidochelys olivacea in the west Atlantic. Here, we investigated dispersal and dive patterns in relation to environmental conditions of 7 satellite-tracked olive ridley females from French Guiana during their post-nesting migration. After they left the nesting beach, turtles followed a consistent northwestward direction and then remained in the restricted yet productive neritic domain of the continental shelf of French Guiana and Suriname. Despite this restricted dispersal range, turtles demonstrated variability in the habitats they exploited, i.e. the coastline, the continental shelf, and the continental slope, illustrating some plasticity. Moreover, turtles showed 2 different foraging strategies, either directly reaching a specific foraging area off river mouths, or meandering over the neritic area exploiting several foraging areas. In addition, turtles showed different dive patterns related to their habitat, although mostly exploiting the seabed by routinely performing U-shaped benthic dives. Overall, turtles vertically exploited non-stratified water masses characterized by warm surface temperatures consistent with their preferential thermal habitat. The migration strategy used by olive ridleys from French Guiana raises conservation concerns, since turtles may be exposed to coastal human-induced activities that must be considered in the implementation of accurate management measures for this still poorly studied population. KEY WORDS: Migration strategy · Diving behavior · Satellite tracking · Atlantic Ocean · Olive ridley turtle Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Plot V, de Thoisy B, Georges JY (2015) Dispersal and dive patterns during the post-nesting migration of olive ridley turtles from French Guiana. Endang Species Res 26:221-234. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00625 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 26, No. 3. Online publication date: January 22, 2015 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2015 Inter-Research.
Highlights
Organisms may adapt to spatiotemporal heterogeneity in resource availability through migration
As far as the western Atlantic Ocean is concerned, only 1 occurrence of post-nesting migration movements has been documented for olive ridley turtles through flipper tag returns of a single female nesting in Brazil (Reis et al 2010)
We investigated the post-nesting migration of 7 satellitetracked olive ridley females from French Guiana and described their dispersal and diving behavior in relation to the environment they exploited
Summary
Organisms may adapt to spatiotemporal heterogeneity in resource availability through migration. Oceanographic fronts occur at the interface between 2 water masses contrasting in their physico-chemical properties, and result in high biological productivity (Olson et al 1994). These frontal areas provide suitable foraging areas for fish, sea birds, marine mammals, and sea turtles Marine biogeography follows the basic geometry of these oceanographic features (Olson et al 1994), often leading to common migration corridors for numerous species (Block et al 2011) and to hotspots of biodiversity (Worm et al 2005). Migrating organisms may show some behavioral plasticity, i.e. they may shift their behavior in response to environmental conditions (Gabriel et al 2005) and/or to their individual physiology, gender, age, or size (Wearmouth & Sims 2008, Southwood & Avens 2010), resulting in some variability in the observed migration patterns
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