Intra-annual Loggerhead and Green Turtle spatial nesting patterns

    Authors

    J. F. Weishampel; D. A. Bagley;L. M. Ehrhart

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Southeast. Nat.

    Keywords

    SEA-TURTLES; CARETTA-CARETTA; CHELONIA-MYDAS; SITE SELECTION; BEACH; CONSEQUENCES; ORIENTATION; LEATHERBACK; NAVIGATION; BEHAVIOR; Biodiversity Conservation; Ecology

    Abstract

    We analyzed a 15-year (1989-2003) dataset of spatial nesting locations for Loggerhead and Green Turtles along a 40.5-km stretch of beach encompassing the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge along the Atlantic coast of Florida. To assess whether there are differences in spatial distribution influenced by temporal site-selection cues, we divided each season into quartiles and analyzed the autocorrelative patterns of the nest distributions within each time frame. Fundamentally, intraspecific differences in nest spatial patterns from the beginning to the end of the nesting season were minor. Though the temporal grain of the analyses may not be able to discern affects of fine-scale fluctuations (e.g., high- and low-tide events), these results suggest that environmental variables that change over the nesting season (e.g., ocean temperatures, daylength, and existing human activities) are not significantly influencing where these sea turtles place their nests.

    Journal Title

    Southeastern Naturalist

    Volume

    5

    Issue/Number

    3

    Publication Date

    1-1-2006

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    453

    Last Page

    462

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000241363800007

    ISSN

    1528-7092

    Share

    COinS