Daily, seasonal, and long-distance movements inferred from Fastloc-GPS telemetry of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) at a high-latitude, mid-ocean developmental site.

ABSTRACT: To characterize the movements and habitat use of juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in benthic developmental habitat, we deployed Fastloc-GPS-enabled satellite transmitters on 16 individuals captured as part of a multi-decade study of green turtles on the Bermuda Platform. We characterized residence areas, distinct use areas within them, and seasonal movements based on an average of 562 Fastloc-GPS positions and 284 tracking days per turtle. We estimated residence area sizes using traditional home range methods, e.g., 90% utilization distribution (UD) (mean 2.29 ±2.71 km2) and 50% UD (mean 0.54 ±0.69 km2). Total residence area size increased significantly over the 8-year study, from <1 km2 before 2013 to ≥3 km2 in 2018 (R2 = 0.51, F1,14 = 14.55, p = 0.0019), corresponding to a period

SUBMITTER: Hardy RF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10723664 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature