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Trans-Pacific dispersal of loggerhead turtle hatchlings inferred from numerical simulation modeling

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Abstract

We used Lagrangian numerical simulations to examine the trans-Pacific dispersal processes of loggerhead turtle hatchlings. Ten thousand simulated particles were released from each of the three nesting regions in Japan and tracked for 5 years. Results showed many particles moving eastward, drifting in the Kuroshio Current followed by the Kuroshio Extension Current. However, no particles reached Baja California, a known feeding area, through passive processes, indicating that trans-Pacific transportation requires active swimming by turtles. The duration of the trans-Pacific dispersal was estimated to be at least 1.6–3.4 years, with some turtles drifting in the Kuroshio Countercurrent and remaining in the western Pacific even after 5 years. This indicates that as revealed by previous genetic studies, not all loggerheads always disperse along a trans-Pacific route. The findings showed that survival and expected growth rates varied widely according to ambient temperatures during drifting, which in turn depended on nesting location.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank to Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) for allowing us to use the OFES simulation data. This study was partly supported by Kyoto University Global COE Program: Informatics Education and Research Center for Knowledge-Circulation Society.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Yoshida Hon-Machi, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Junichi Okuyama & Nobuaki Arai

  2. Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan

    Takashi Kitagawa, Kei Zenimoto & Shingo Kimura

  3. Research Institute for Global Change, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25, Showa-Machi, Kanazawa, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan

    Yoshikazu Sasai

  4. Earth Simulator Centre, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3173-25 Showa-Machi, Kanazawa, Yokohama, 236-0001, Japan

    Hideharu Sasaki

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  1. Junichi Okuyama
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  2. Takashi Kitagawa
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  4. Shingo Kimura
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Correspondence to Junichi Okuyama.

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Communicated by J. Houghton.

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Okuyama, J., Kitagawa, T., Zenimoto, K. et al. Trans-Pacific dispersal of loggerhead turtle hatchlings inferred from numerical simulation modeling. Mar Biol 158, 2055–2063 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1712-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-011-1712-9

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