Foraging Habits of Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico

Details

• Journal Title:
  Frontiers in Marine Science
• Personal Author:
  Howell, Lyndsey N. ; Shaver, Donna J.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; OPR (Office of Protected Resources)
• Description:
  Knowledge of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) foraging ecology in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is critical as populations begin to recover from heavy harvesting in prior centuries. We present a comprehensive long-term assessment of green turtle diets from carcasses salvaged from 1987 to 2014 along the Texas coast. Digestive tract contents were examined from 420 green turtles, ranging in size from 7.3 to 86.0 cm in straight carapace length (SCL_max). Green turtles as small as 16.2 cm SCL_max recruit from the oceanic environment to nearshore foraging habitat in the northwestern GOM and consume macroalgae principally. A successive shift in diet and habitat to inshore seagrasses was evident by the seagrass-dominated diet of turtles larger than 30 cm SCL_max. Animal matter remained a frequently ingested diet item suggesting these immature green turtles are better classified as omnivores. The overall evidence indicates that Texas’ recovering green turtle assemblage is exhibiting foraging plasticity within seagrass meadows changing species composition and density.
• Keywords:
  • Sea Turtle
  • Chelonia mydas
  • Gut content analysis
  • foraging ecology
  • Texas
• Source:
  Frontiers in Marine Science, 8(418)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.658368
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Texas
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/30742/noaa_30742_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.17 MB]
• Collection(s):
  National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:ab693852bd91bdb1f02cd000ab09861f22ac8369b11f934cdb4ccd4700b900b5