Title
Opportunism on the high seas: Foraging ecology of olive ridley turtles in the eastern Pacific Ocean
Date Issued
08 November 2017
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Publisher(s)
Frontiers Media S. A
Abstract
Stable isotopic compositions in animal tissues have been widely used to gain insight into trophic dynamics, especially of mobile aquatic predators whose behavior and dietary preferences are difficult to directly measure. Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) range across > 3 million km2 of the tropical and subtropical eastern Pacific Ocean and their trophic ecology in open ocean areas has not yet been adequately described. Individuals feed within biogeographic regions where varying nutrient cycling regimes result in phytoplankton with distinct δ13C and δ15N values that are assimilated by the turtles. We sampled 346 turtles at-sea between 2003 and 2009 and used bulk tissue (n = 346) and amino acid compound specific isotope analysis (AA-CSIA, n = 31) to empirically support the conventional understanding that olive ridleys are omnivores. Bulk δ15N values did not significantly vary with carapace length, a proxy for age, or with putative sex of adults. We therefore hypothesize that trophic position (TP) does not vary across age or sex. In line with other isotopic studies of this biogeographic scale in the same region, we observed a trend of bulk tissue 15N enrichment with increasing latitude. Using AA-CSIA to account for δ15N baseline shifts among food webs (space), we estimated the TP of adult foragers using two methods. We found that across their eastern Pacific range, olive ridley δ13C and δ15N niche area varied, but median TP of adults remained constant (~3.1). Using a two-amino acid TP estimation method, we detected a small but notable elevation of TP for olive ridleys on the Costa Rica Dome. This study underscores the value of large-scale in-water olive ridley sea turtle research across oceanic foraging habitats to confirm or challenge anecdotal understanding of trophic roles, susceptibility to environmental change, and critical habitats. Further, it improves our understanding of why this species is now abundant in the eastern Pacific Ocean. A prey generalist with plenty of suitable foraging habitat can recover from the brink of extinction despite the presence of major threats. However, such foraging characteristics may require dynamic open ocean management approaches to meet conservation objectives if threats persist and/or increase.
Volume
4
Issue
NOV
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Biología marina, Biología de agua dulce, Limnología
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85034055114
Source
Frontiers in Marine Science
ISSN of the container
22967745
Sponsor(s)
All samples from the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean were collected under NOAA PRD Research Permit #774 1714. Special thanks to the captains, crews, and sea-going scientists of the NOAA Ship DAVID STARR JORDAN; Chief Scientists and Survey Coordinators of ETP Cetacean and Ecosystem Assessment Surveys (MMTD, SWFSC); CDA, MGB, LED, RMF, MPJ, BEK, DAS, and KRS for helpful reviews of earlier drafts of this manuscript; Natalie Wallsgrove and Cassie Lyons at the University of Hawaii for laboratory assistance; and J. Schumacher, B. D. MacDonald, G. E. Lemons, and D. Prosperi for laboratory and database assistance at SWFSC. Funding for this project was provided by NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Protected Resources Division; the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship grant #0946813; the NSF award #1137336, Inter-university Training in Continental-scale Ecology; and Turtles in the Deep crowdfunders via SciFund Round One. Open access to this publication was made possible by the UC Santa Barbara Library's Open Access Fund. This is SOEST contribution number 10210.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus