Exposure of Marine Turtle Nesting Grounds to Named Storms Along the Continental USA

Mariana M P B Fuentes,Donna Shaver,Ruth Boettcher,Dianne Ingram,Matthew H Godfrey,Simona Ceriani,Christian Gredzens,Natalie Wildermann,Matthew Ware

doi:10.3390/rs11242996

Abstract

Named storms can cause substantial impacts on the habitat and reproductive output of threatened species, such as marine turtles. To determine the impacts of named storms on marine turtles and inform management, it is necessary to determine the exposure of marine turtle nesting grounds to recent storm activities. To address this, remote sensing information of named storm tracks coupled with nesting ground data were used to investigate the temporal and spatial overlap between nesting grounds for four species of marine turtles in the continental United States of America. All species of marine turtles were exposed to named storms, with variation in exposure driven by the spatial distribution of each population’s nesting ground, the temporal overlap between the storms and reproductive events, and nest placement on the beach. Loggerhead turtles were the most exposed species to named storms, with the northern management unit having significantly higher exposure levels than all other loggerhead management units. Kemp’s ridley turtles, in contrast, were found to be the least exposed species to named storms. This study establishes a valuable current baseline against which to measure and compare future impacts that result as climate change progresses and storms become more frequent and intense. Importantly, cumulative and synergetic effects from other climatic processes and anthropogenic stressors should be considered in future analysis.

Highlights

Understanding the spatial and temporal exposure of biodiversity to specific threats is crucial for targeted management and their conservation
Four species of marine turtles nest along this area on sandy beaches located on mainland and barrier islands: loggerhead turtles, which are further classified into six management units:northwestern Florida (NW), Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 2996 central–western Florida (CW), south–western Florida (SW), south–eastern Florida (SE), central–eastern Florida (CE) and northern (N) [31,32]), as well as green turtles, leatherback turtles and Kemp’s ridley turtles [9,33,34,35,36,37]
The impact that each nesting ground species, and populations will experience from named storms is a function of their exposure to the storms, the temporal overlap between the storms and nesting and hatching, the importance of each of the nesting grounds in terms of numbers of incubating eggs during the storm, and nest placement on the beach [13,14]

Summary

Introduction

Understanding the spatial and temporal exposure of biodiversity to specific threats is crucial for targeted management and their conservation. This is true for species threatened with extinction and that are exposed to seasonal disturbances. Several efforts have been undertaken to determine the specific exposure of species of conservation concern, such as marine turtles, to disturbances [1,2] Marine turtles use both terrestrial and marine environments throughout different life stages during which they are exposed to an array of anthropogenic and environmental disturbances at various scales [3,4,5]. A few studies have been focused on determining the exposure and potential disturbance of marine turtles to environmental disturbances such as those from tropical storms and hurricanes [13,14], hereafter “named storms” for simplicity

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion