Jellyfish distribution in space and time predicts leatherback sea turtle hot spots in the Northwest Atlantic.

ABSTRACT: Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) migrate to temperate Canadian Atlantic waters to feed on gelatinous zooplankton ('jellyfish') every summer. However, the spatio-temporal connection between predator foraging and prey-field dynamics has not been studied at the large scales over which these migratory animals occur. We use 8903 tows of groundfish survey jellyfish bycatch data between 2006-2017 to reveal spatial jellyfish hot spots, and matched these data to satellite-telemetry leatherback data over time and space. We found highly significant overlap of jellyfish and leatherback distribution on the Scotian Shelf (r = 0.89), moderately strong correlations of jellyfish and leatherback spatial hot spots in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (r = 0.59), and strong correlations in the Bay of Fun

SUBMITTER: Nordstrom B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7224493 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature