Nesting ecology of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, in an extreme environmental setting

16Citations
Citations of this article
62Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Relatively few details of hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting ecology exist within the Arabian Gulf. Moreover, little is known about how their nesting dynamics compare to nesting populations throughout the rest of the world. Due to the extreme environmental setting, nesting ecology of hawksbills in the Arabian Gulf is of significant interest to researchers and conservationists. The current research reports on a long-term tagging and monitoring program undertaken at Fuwairit beach, Qatar. To investigate nesting behavior, site surveys and tagging were employed from 2010 to 2016. Presence of nests and clutch sizes were confirmed by excavation. Over the entire study period, nesting hawksbills had a mean curved carapace length of 70.8 cm (SD±2.8). A total 187 nests were confirmed, which contained a mean 78.9 eggs per clutch (SD±17.1), over an annual nesting season that lasted an average of 52.2 days (SD±6.3) from the start of April to the start of June. Meta-analysis with other global regions showed these characteristics to be significantly reduced when compared to nesting hawksbills from other populations. Meteorological data analysis showed air temperatures in the Arabian Gulf to increase on average 13.2C (SD±0.26) from start to the end of nesting annually, which is significantly greater than other global nesting regions. Their smaller body size and reduced fecundity coupled with the extreme change in ambient air temperatures support the hypothesis that hawksbills in the region are more at risk than the already critically endangered hawksbill populations elsewhere in the world.

References Powered by Scopus

The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project

26361Citations
5833Readers
Get full text
671Citations
629Readers
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

12Citations
30Readers
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Chatting, M., Smyth, D., Al-Maslamani, I., Obbard, J., Al-Ansi, M., Hamza, S., … Marshall, C. D. (2018). Nesting ecology of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, in an extreme environmental setting. PLoS ONE, 13(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203257

Readers over time

‘18‘19‘20‘21‘22‘23‘240481216

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 17

71%

Researcher 5

21%

Lecturer / Post doc 2

8%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Environmental Science 14

52%

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 9

33%

Social Sciences 2

7%

Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Bi... 2

7%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Social Media
Shares, Likes & Comments: 8

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0