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Oceanic residents, neritic migrants: a possible mechanism underlying foraging dichotomy in adult female loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta)

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An Erratum to this article was published on 09 April 2010

Abstract

To reveal the mechanism underlying intrapopulation variation in the use of feeding habitats (oceanic vs. neritic) by adult female loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), we compared telomere length in the epidermis (a proxy for age) between oceanic- and neritic-foraging recruits (first-time nesters). Based on egg-yolk stable isotope ratios, recruits at Yakushima Island, Japan, were clearly divided into small oceanic planktivores and large neritic benthivores. There were no significant differences in telomere length between oceanic and neritic foragers, suggesting that they start reproduction at similar ages. Turtles that experienced faster growing conditions during their oceanic early lives may achieve sexual maturity there, while others may move from oceanic areas into neritic habitats, switching diets from nutrient-poor macroplankton to nutrient-rich benthic fauna in order to compensate for their earlier slow growth rate and continue their sexual development, reaching maturity in neritic waters.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff and volunteers of the Yakushima Sea Turtle Research Group for field assistance. T. Miyajima of the Marine Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, allowed us to use the mass spectrometer. R. Sudo provided technical advice on real-time PCR assay. M. J. Miller helped to improve the manuscript. Two anonymous referees provided constructive comments on the manuscript. This work was partly supported by a grant from the Nippon Foundation to H. H. The experiment was conducted under licenses issued by the municipalities of Kagoshima Prefecture (No. 1-4) and Yakushima Town (No. 230), and in accordance with the Animal Care Authorization (No. P08-1) of the University of Tokyo.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 1-15-1 Minamidai, Nakano, Tokyo, 164-8639, Japan

    Hideo Hatase & Katsumi Tsukamoto

  2. Yakushima Sea Turtle Research Group, 489-8 Nagata, Yakushima, Kagoshima, 891-4201, Japan

    Kazuyoshi Omuta

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  1. Hideo Hatase
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  2. Kazuyoshi Omuta
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  3. Katsumi Tsukamoto
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Correspondence to Hideo Hatase.

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Communicated by R. Lewison.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1440-6

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Hatase, H., Omuta, K. & Tsukamoto, K. Oceanic residents, neritic migrants: a possible mechanism underlying foraging dichotomy in adult female loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Mar Biol 157, 1337–1342 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-010-1413-9

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