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Sea surface temperature variations in core foraging grounds drive nesting trends and phenology of loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean Sea

Mazaris, Antonios D., Kallimanis, Athanasios S., Tzanopoulos, Joseph, Sgardelis, Stefanos P., Pantis, John D. (2009) Sea surface temperature variations in core foraging grounds drive nesting trends and phenology of loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean Sea. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL MARINE BIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY, 379 (1-2). pp. 23-27. ISSN 0022-0981. (doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2009.07.026) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:30020)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2009.07.026

Abstract

The sea surface temperature (SST) in loggerhead turtle breeding areas affects the species reproductive biology. Less is known about the effects of changes in SST in the species foraging grounds. We used nesting data for the Mediterranean loggerhead turtle population breeding on the Greek island of Zakynthos to study the effect of SST in the population foraging grounds upon the initiation of nesting and the number of clutches laid. We found that the climatic conditions (SST) in the foraging grounds affected the population nesting phenology in the short term (i.e. within the same year); warmer years triggered an earlier onset of nesting. However, the effect of foraging grounds SST upon nesting is comparatively less important than the local conditions at the nesting ground. Although nesting phenology seems to depend on current's year foraging grounds SST the number of nests in our study rookery were negatively correlated with SSTs recorded 2 years prior nesting, with higher SST leading to fewer nests. From this point of view, climate change at the foraging grounds may influence the reproductive phenology of loggerheads. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.jembe.2009.07.026
Uncontrolled keywords: Climate change, Ecological modeling, Marine turtles, Nesting trends, Reproductive phenology, Temporal scale
Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH541 Ecology
Q Science > QH Natural history > QH75 Conservation (Biology)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Joseph Tzanopoulos
Date Deposited: 24 Nov 2014 10:15 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30020 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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