Stable isotope signatures from green turtles and hawksbills at Buck Island Reef National Monument, U.S. Virgin Islands from 2012-2019
Dates
Publication Date
2022-10-07
Start Date
2012-03-14
End Date
2019-09-10
Citation
Hart, K.M., Moorehouse, M.A., and Baldwin, J.D., 2022, Stable isotope signatures from green turtles and hawksbills at Buck Island Reef National Monument, U.S. Virgin Islands from 2012-2019: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ED29DJ.
Summary
We used stable isotope analysis of nitrogen and carbon turtle epidermal samples to describe the trophic niche of the sampled sea turtle population by portraying δC as a habitat structure variable against δN as a resource gradient axis. We examined isotopic data for hawksbills (n = 64) and green turtles (n = 241) hand-captured across an 8-year time frame (2011-2019) to assess interspecific competition. We use statistical analysis to identify ontogenetic shifts associated with changes in trophic feeding to postulate changes to resource use. Our results indicate that stable environmental conditions around Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM) allow for different trophic strategies across the two species with significantly overlapping [...]
Summary
We used stable isotope analysis of nitrogen and carbon turtle epidermal samples to describe the trophic niche of the sampled sea turtle population by portraying δC as a habitat structure variable against δN as a resource gradient axis. We examined isotopic data for hawksbills (n = 64) and green turtles (n = 241) hand-captured across an 8-year time frame (2011-2019) to assess interspecific competition. We use statistical analysis to identify ontogenetic shifts associated with changes in trophic feeding to postulate changes to resource use. Our results indicate that stable environmental conditions around Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM) allow for different trophic strategies across the two species with significantly overlapping foraging niches. Our metrics can further be used to measure change in local conditions and populations, or to make global comparisons of trophic niche for each species.
Click on title to download individual files attached to this item.
Buck Island Reef Sea Turtle Stable Isotope Values 092922.xml Original FGDC Metadata
View
18.36 KB
application/fgdc+xml
Hart-Moorehouse-Baldwin_DataRelease_FINAL.csv
19.28 KB
text/csv
Related External Resources
Type: Related Primary Publication
Moorehouse, M.A., Baldwin, J.D., and Hart, K.M., 2023, Hawksbill and green turtle niche overlap in a marine protected area, US Virgin Islands: Endangered Species Research, v. 52, p. 265-283, https://doi.org/10.3354/esr01276.
We collected the data to establish the stable isotope values of the Buck Island hawksbill and green turtle population, to identify the variables which best explain the patterns in the sampled hawksbill and green turtle tissues, and using a collaborators dataset, to compare the isotope signature of hawksbills and green turtles against that of seagrasses found in Buck Island Reef National Monument.
