Oceanic drivers of juvenile sea turtle strandings in the UK.
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/25295Dato
2022-05-05Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Forfatter
Kettemer, Lisa Elena; Biastoch, Arne; Scott, Rebecca; Coombs, Ellen J.; Wagner, Patrick; Penrose, RodSammendrag
Juvenile sea turtles can disperse thousands of kilometers from nesting beaches to
oceanic development habitats, aided by ocean currents. In the North Atlantic, turtles dispersing
from American beaches risk being advected out of warm nursery grounds in the North Atlantic
Gyre into lethally cold northern European waters (e.g. around the UK). We used an ocean model
simulation to compare simulated numbers of turtles that were advected to cold waters around
the UK with observed numbers of turtles reported in the same area over ~5 decades. Rates of virtual turtles predicted to encounter lethal (10°C) or detrimental (15°C) temperatures (mean 19% ±
2.7 SD) and reach the UK were consistently low (median 0.83%, lower quartile 0.67%, upper
quartile 1.02%), whereas there was high inter-annual variability in the numbers of dead or critically ill turtles re ported in the UK. Generalized additive models suggest inter-annual variability in
the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index to be a good indicator of annual numbers of turtle
strandings reported in the UK. We demonstrate that NAO variability drives variability in the dispersion scenarios of juvenile turtles from key nesting regions into the North Atlantic. Coastal
effects, such as the number of storms and mean sea surface temperatures in the UK, were significant but weak predictors, with a weak effect on turtle strandings. Further understanding how
changing environmental conditions such as NAO variability and storms affect the fate of juvenile
turtles is vital for understanding the distribution and population dynamics of sea turtles.
Forlag
Inter ResearchSitering
Kettemer LE, Biastoch A, Wagner P, Coombs EJ, Penrose R, Scott R (2022) Oceanic drivers of juvenile sea turtle strandings in the UK. Endang Species Res 48:15-29.Metadata
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