Increasing green turtle abundance will lead to increased grazing within seagrass habitats—ecosystems that are important for carbon sequestration and storage. However, it is not well understood how carbon dynamics in these ecosystems respond to grazing and whether a response differs among meadows or locations. We measured seagrass ecosystem metabolism in grazed and ungrazed areas of Across all individual sites, rates of net ecosystem production (NEP) ranged from 56% to 96% lower in grazed areas than ungrazed areas of
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Outside of short, infrequent visits to reproductive habitats, sea turtle lifespans are largely spent in foraging areas. Supporting imperilled populations in an era of biodiversity declines and environmental change requires improvements in the understanding of foraging distributions, plus the migratory corridors that connect foraging and reproductive habitats. This study evaluates the migratory strategies and foraging geography of hawksbill sea turtles ( Hawksbill migrations ( These results add to evidence suggesting that, broadly, post‐nesting hawksbills forage in neritic habitats throughout the Wider Caribbean, including several high‐use areas. Short displacements to foraging habitats relatively nearby to nesting beaches appear to be the most common migratory behaviour, but individuals in a single population may exhibit various migratory strategies, resulting in basin‐wide connectivity between nesting and foraging sites. Given that a single individual or nesting population may inhabit several management jurisdictions, an idealized scenario for regional hawksbill conservation would entail data sharing between managers at linked nesting areas, foraging habitats and migratory corridors such that policies to protect key habitats and mitigate human impacts are designed and evaluated based on best‐available science.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10486427
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
- Volume:
- 34
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1052-7613
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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