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Appropriate morphometrics for the first assessment of juvenile green turtle (Chelonia mydas) age and growth in the south-western Atlantic

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Abstract

In response to an absence of size-at-age information for juvenile Chelonia mydas in the South Atlantic Ocean, but the need for such regional data to support global ecological monitoring and conservation actions, skeletochronological analyses (using humeri) were undertaken for 63 stranded dead specimens (30.0–58.0 cm curved carapace length—CCL) collected between 2008 and 2013 from 40 km of beaches off southern Brazil. Specimens were defined as being 2–8 years old and from various nesting sites (based on mitochondrial haplotypes). Parametric mixed-effect models were used to examine variation among CCL, maximum humeral length (MHL) and medial humeral width (MHW) due to age (fitted with a natural cubic smoothing spline), genetic haplotype and various random factors. Genetic haplotype was not significant and subsequently removed from analyses. All three size-at-age parameters had random variability, but changes in somatic C. mydas growth described by MHW were less representative than the others, remaining constant through a linear relationship with age. By contrast, both CCL and the preferred MHL similarly displayed positive exponential-shaped splines, with age-specific growth rates (3- to 7-year-olds) predicted at 1.4–3.4 cm year−1 CCL or 0.2–0.7 cm year−1 MHL. The observed CCL growth was comparable to recent estimates for other global populations, but with southern Brazilian C. mydas generally having larger sizes-at-age. Such intra-population differences can be attributed not only to regional prerecruitment environmental parameters and associated ecological implications (e.g. foraging ecology), but also divergent analytical methods. The choice of the latter to accurately model variable growth rates has implications for comparing size-at-age among other sea-turtle populations.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Eduardo Secchi and Roberta Petitet for their logistic support and assistance with the skeletochronological analyses. We would also like to express our gratitude to the LEC/UFPR research team for assistance with obtaining the carcasses and to Drs Marco Fabio Correa and Charlie Gray for their helpful comments and assistance. Drs Fernanda Almeida and Laura Prosdocimi are thanked for the genetic analyses. This study was financially supported by the ‘Fundação Grupo O Boticário and Fundação Araucária’ and was performed only with stranded animals; no animal was intentionally captured or killed. In this case, no submission to the institutional ethics committee on the use of animals is required in Brazil. Nevertheless, the project had a research approval by the Ministry of the Environmental—MMA (ICMBio/SISBIO 18955/1–2). Mariane Ferrarini Andrade received a CAPEs grant. The authors had no conflict of interest with the study.

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  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Av. Celso Garcia Cid, Pr 445 Km 380, Cx. Postal 10.011, Londrina, Paraná, 86057-970, Brazil

    Mariane F. Andrade, Camila Domit & Ângela T. Silva-Souza

  2. Laboratório de Ecologia de Parasitos de Organismos Aquáticos, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Av. Celso Garcia Cid, Pr 445 Km 380, Cx. Postal 10.011, Londrina, Paraná, 86057-970, Brazil

    Mariane F. Andrade & Ângela T. Silva-Souza

  3. Laboratório de Ecologia e Conservação, Centro de Estudos do Mar, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Av. Beira Mar s/n, PO Box 61, Pontal do Paraná, Paraná, 83255-000, Brazil

    Mariane F. Andrade & Camila Domit

  4. New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries Conservation Technology Unit, PO Box 4321, Coffs Harbour, NSW, 2450, Australia

    Matt K. Broadhurst

  5. Marine and Estuarine Ecology Unit, School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Matt K. Broadhurst

  6. School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Daniel J. Tolhurst

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  1. Mariane F. Andrade
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Andrade, M.F., Domit, C., Broadhurst, M.K. et al. Appropriate morphometrics for the first assessment of juvenile green turtle (Chelonia mydas) age and growth in the south-western Atlantic. Mar Biol 163, 254 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-016-3031-7

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