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Temporal consistency and individual specialization in resource use by green turtles in successive life stages

Oecologia volume 173, pages 767–777 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

Not all individuals in a population use the same subset of dietary and habitat resources. Patterns of individual specialization have been documented in an increasing number of organisms, but often without an associated time scale over which niche specialization was observed. We examined the patterns in individual resource use through time and in relation to the population with metrics of temporal consistency and degree of individual specialization. We used stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen in successive subsections of scute tissue from the carapace to compare foraging patterns in three successive life stages of the green turtle (Chelonia mydas). Temporal consistency was measured as the mean within-individual variation in stable isotope values through time, whereas the degree of individual specialization was a ratio of the individual variation to that of the population. The distinction between these two parameters is important, as the metric of temporal consistency quantifies the regularity of individual resource use, and the degree of individual specialization indicates what proportion of the population niche an average individual uses. The scute record retains a chronological history of resource use and was estimated to represent a minimum 0.8 years in juveniles to a maximum of 6.5 years in adults. Both temporal consistency and individual specialization varied significantly among life stages. Adults were highly consistent in resource use through time and formed a generalist population with individual specialists maintaining long-term patterns in resource use. Oceanic and neritic juvenile life stages exhibited less temporal consistency in resource use with less individual specialization than adults. These observations are important when considering the ecological roles filled by green turtles in each life stage; also, individual differences in resource use may result in differential fitness consequences.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank D. Jones, S. Durose, and other volunteers of Global Vision International for allowing H.B.V.Z. to participate in jaguar walks to collect samples at Tortuguero Beach; E. Harrison of Sea Turtle Conservancy and staff at the John H. Phipps Biological Field Station in Costa Rica for field logistics; H. Nixon, R. Burrows, and the Bahamas National Trust for assistance with turtle sampling in The Bahamas; M. López-Castro for help with scute sample preparation; J. Curtis for stable isotope analysis; J. Ferguson for help with statistics; and C. Angelini, M. Brenner, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript. Figure 1 was created with seaturtle.org Maptool (http://www.seaturtle.org/maptool/). This study was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, PADI Foundation Grant, Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research, and Riewald-Olowo Grant to H.B.V.Z. and Grants to K.A.B. and A.B.B. from the US National Marine Fisheries Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Knight Vision Foundation, the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, and the Sea Turtle Grants Program (funded from proceeds from the sale of the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate). Samples were collected and processed in compliance with the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Florida. All necessary international permits were obtained for sample collection in Costa Rica and The Bahamas and CITES permits for export and import of the samples. Sample collection and processing complied with the countries in which the studies were performed. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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  1. Archie Carr Center for Sea Turtle Research and Department of Biology, University of Florida, 220 Bartram Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8525, USA

    Hannah B. Vander Zanden, Karen A. Bjorndal & Alan B. Bolten

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  1. Hannah B. Vander Zanden
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  2. Karen A. Bjorndal
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  3. Alan B. Bolten
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Correspondence to Hannah B. Vander Zanden.

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Communicated by Craig Layman.

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Vander Zanden, H.B., Bjorndal, K.A. & Bolten, A.B. Temporal consistency and individual specialization in resource use by green turtles in successive life stages. Oecologia 173, 767–777 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-013-2655-2

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Keywords

  • Isotopic niche
  • Foraging patterns
  • Chelonia mydas
  • Ontogeny
  • Scute