Abstract
Competition for space drives many marine propagules to colonize the external surfaces of other marine organisms, a phenomenon known as epibiosis. Epibiosis appears to be a universal phenomenon among sea turtles and an extensive body of scientific literature exists describing sea turtle-epibiont interactions. When viewed in isolation, however, these epibiont “species lists” provide limited insights into the factors driving patterns in taxonomic diversity on a global scale. We conducted an exhaustive literature review to collate information on sea turtle-epibiont interactions into a global database. As studies involving meio- and micro-epibionts, as well as plants, are limited, we exclusively focused on animal, macro-epibionts (>1 mm). We identified 304 studies that included a combined total of 1,717 sea turtle-epibiont interactions involving 374 unique epibiont taxa from 23 Higher Taxon categories (full Phylum or select phyla differentiated by Subphylum/Class/Subclass). We found that loggerhead turtles hosted the highest taxonomic richness (262 epibiont taxa) and diversity, including representative taxa from 21 Higher Taxon categories, followed by hawksbill, green, olive ridley, leatherback, Kemp’s ridley, and flatback turtles. In addition, the taxonomic richness for all turtle species except leatherbacks was projected to increase with additional studies. We found that taxonomic richness not only varies between species but also between well-studied populations of loggerhead turtles. Lastly, we assessed biases in the current literature and identified knowledge gaps for certain species (e.g., Kemp’s ridleys and flatbacks), life stages (e.g., juveniles), habitats (e.g., oceanic habitats), and geographic regions (e.g., central Pacific, east Atlantic, and east Indian oceans). Our hope is that this database will serve as a foundational platform for future studies investigating global patterns of the diversity, ecological function, and evolutionary origins of sea turtle epibiosis.
Highlights
Competition for space drives marine propagules to colonize almost any exposed, undefended surface in the marine environment (Harder, 2009; Wahl, 2009)
(1) Which sea turtle species hosts the greatest epibiont diversity? (2) Does the current literature for each turtle species fully encompass the taxonomic richness of their epibiont communities? we investigated similar questions among three well-studied populations of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta)
A structured search was conducted in Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Sea Turtle Online Bibliography (Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research, University of Florida) using the following Boolean search terms: epibiont, epibiosis, epifauna, epibiota, and both common and scientific names of the seven marine turtle species: loggerhead turtle (C. caretta), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), Kemp’s ridley turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), and flatback turtle (Natator depressus)
Summary
Competition for space drives marine propagules to colonize almost any exposed, undefended surface in the marine environment (Harder, 2009; Wahl, 2009). The presence of certain epibiont species or assemblages that occupy specific regions (e.g., tropical, temperate, or polar) and/or habitats (e.g., oceanic/pelagic or neritic/benthic) can serve as indicators of the migratory movements and habitat preferences of sea turtles (Casale et al, 2004; Frick and Pfaller, 2013). The diversity of sea turtle epibionts and the diverse ways they interact with their hosts, means that the presence or absence of particular epibiont taxa can serve as indicators of the hosts’ foraging preferences (Pfaller et al, 2014), social or reproductive behavior (Domènech et al, 2017; Robinson et al, 2017a), body condition and/or health status (Lazo-Wasem et al, 2007; Nolte et al, 2020), and more
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