1. Ecological regime shift drives declining growth rates of sea turtles throughout the West Atlantic
- Author
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Milagros López-Mendilaharsu, Deborah Hayes, Luis Felipe Wurdig Bortolon, Thomas B. Stringell, Robert P. van Dam, Alejandro Fallabrino, Rhonda Bailey, Sue Willis, Gabriela M. Vélez-Rubio, J. M. Blumenthal, Kristen M. Hart, Michael J. Bresette, Annabelle Brooks, Amdeep Sanghera, Andrew G. Crowder, Stephen Connett, Jennifer A. Gray, Raymond R. Carthy, Andrés Estrades, Erin McMichael, Marta C. Calosso, Jane A. Provancha, Peter B. Richardson, Cathi L. Campbell, Vincent S. Saba, Annette C. Broderick, Adriana Jardim, Jonathan C. Gorham, Mike Dawson, Amanda L. Gordon, Russell A. Scarpino, Karen A. Bjorndal, Donna J. Shaver, Vanessa Labrada-Martagón, Andrew McGowan, Claudio Bellini, Andre M. Landry, Milani Chaloupka, Beth Brost, Michael S. Cherkiss, Gustavo Martínez-Souza, Zandy Hillis-Starr, Carlos E. Diez, Lory Kenyon, Barbara Van Sciver Crouchley, Anne B. Meylan, Allen M. Foley, Ralf H. Boulon, Daniel González-Paredes, Matthew J. Witt, Cynthia J. Lagueux, Maria A. G. dei Marcovaldi, Fernando Alberto Muñoz Teneriá, Tasha L. Metz, Quinton Phillips, Clayton Pollock, Robert Wershoven, Peter A. Meylan, Ana Negrete-Philippe, Vicente Guzmán Hernández, John A. B. Claydon, Roberto Herrera-Pavón, Armando J. B. Santos, Robert Hardy, Jaime A. Collazo, Lucy Collyer, Alan B. Bolten, Brendan J. Godley, Mabel Nava, Thomas L. Bethel, Margaret M. Lamont, and Armando Lorences
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Global and Planetary Change ,Ecology ,biology ,Environmental change ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Temperature ,Multivariate ENSO index ,biology.organism_classification ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Turtles ,Sea surface temperature ,Sea turtle ,Productivity (ecology) ,Ectotherm ,Animals ,Body Size ,Environmental Chemistry ,Regime shift ,Atlantic Ocean ,General Environmental Science ,Trophic level - Abstract
Somatic growth is an integrated, individual-based response to environmental conditions, especially in ectotherms. Growth dynamics of large, mobile animals are particularly useful as bio-indicators of environmental change at regional scales. We assembled growth rate data from throughout the West Atlantic for green turtles, Chelonia mydas, which are long-lived, highly migratory, primarily herbivorous mega-consumers that may migrate over hundreds to thousands of kilometers. Our dataset, the largest ever compiled for sea turtles, has 9690 growth increments from 30 sites from Bermuda to Uruguay from 1973 to 2015. Using generalized additive mixed models, we evaluated covariates that could affect growth rates; body size, diet, and year have significant effects on growth. Growth increases in early years until 1999, then declines by 26% to 2015. The temporal (year) effect is of particular interest because two carnivorous species of sea turtles-hawksbills, Eretmochelys imbricata, and loggerheads, Caretta caretta-exhibited similar significant declines in growth rates starting in 1997 in the West Atlantic, based on previous studies. These synchronous declines in productivity among three sea turtle species across a trophic spectrum provide strong evidence that an ecological regime shift (ERS) in the Atlantic is driving growth dynamics. The ERS resulted from a synergy of the 1997/1998 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-the strongest on record-combined with an unprecedented warming rate over the last two to three decades. Further support is provided by the strong correlations between annualized mean growth rates of green turtles and both sea surface temperatures (SST) in the West Atlantic for years of declining growth rates (r = -.94) and the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) for all years (r = .74). Granger-causality analysis also supports the latter finding. We discuss multiple stressors that could reinforce and prolong the effect of the ERS. This study demonstrates the importance of region-wide collaborations.
- Published
- 2017
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