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Developing a common currency for stable isotope analyses of nesting marine turtles

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Abstract

Understanding geospatial linkages is critical to the development of appropriate management and conservation strategies for migratory species. Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool that is performed routinely across taxa to unravel migratory connectivity. Marine turtles are a highly migratory and widely distributed taxon, but are largely studied at breeding areas. Isotopic values of several slow turnover rate tissues have been used to identify often distant foraging areas. However, as more isotopic data from various tissues become available, the relationships between tissues need to be calculated to permit meta-analyses to elucidate isotopic patterns across broader spatiotemporal scales. We used several commonly collected tissues (blood, skin, fresh eggs and unhatched eggs) collected simultaneously from loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) to develop a common currency for stable isotope analysis studies conducted on the nesting beach. We found highly significant relationships between the tissue signatures (r 2 ranged from 0.83 to 0.96) and developed equations to convert isotopic values from one tissue to another. We examined inter- and intra-clutch isotopic variability and found that a single sampling event over the 4-month nesting season adequately defined the loggerhead female foraging area. Consequently, we propose using unhatched eggs as a common currency in stable isotope studies of nesting loggerheads. Unhatched eggs represent a noninvasive and nondestructive method that enables more extensive (both numerically and spatially) sampling. Given similar physiologies, analogous relationships might be derived in other sea turtle species.

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Acknowledgments

We thank B. Sharma, R. Woods, A. Hays, A. Sterner, C. Sanchez, C. Long, K. Martin, C. Johnson, C. Sasso and D. Evans for their help with fieldwork. We thank G. Worthy and the PEBL lab for providing laboratory access and advice and C. Amato, R. Chabot and F. Gusmao for help in the laboratory. We thank the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge Managers and in particular K. Kneifl for supporting our research. We thank Y. Cherel and two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the manuscript. The animal use protocol for this research was reviewed and approved by the University of Central Florida Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC protocol #09-22W). Procedures were approved under the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (Marine Turtle Permit #025). This work was supported by several grants awarded from the Sea Turtle Grants Program (09-055R, 10-020R, 10-023R, 11-021R). The Sea Turtle Grants Program is funded from proceeds from the sale of the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate. Learn more at www.helpingseaturtles.org.

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  1. Simona A. Ceriani

    Present address: Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, 100 8th Avenue Southeast, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

    Simona A. Ceriani, Llewellyn M. Ehrhart, Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio & John F. Weishampel

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada

    James D. Roth

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  1. Simona A. Ceriani
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Correspondence to Simona A. Ceriani.

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Communicated by Y. Cherel.

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Ceriani, S.A., Roth, J.D., Ehrhart, L.M. et al. Developing a common currency for stable isotope analyses of nesting marine turtles. Mar Biol 161, 2257–2268 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2503-x

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