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Decadal Monitoring in Bermuda Shows a Widespread Loss of Seagrasses Attributable to Overgrazing by the Green Sea Turtle Chelonia mydas

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Abstract

The condition of seagrass habitat and the marine environment on the Bermuda Platform, a mid-oceanic shallow water habitat in the northwest Atlantic, has been monitored since 2006. The overall oceanic climate of the Platform is subtropical; the Platform supports communities of tropical marine seagrasses, including Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme, Halodule sp., and Halophila decipiens. At the beginning of the study, the general condition of seagrass beds at 17 permanent offshore and nearshore sites indicated that 14 were healthy, complex, and thriving communities, and three represented offshore beds, which had declined precipitously prior to the initiation of study. Over the period of the study, seagrass beds declined at all 17 sites; three beds disappeared, and there was no recovery at the sites known to have declined prior to 2006. Over the same period, there was no apparent negative change in the water quality overlying the seagrass beds. Assessments of elemental content, stable isotopic composition, and leaf morphology indicated that grazing by the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is driving the decline of the seagrasses of Bermuda. Given the feeding behavior of these turtles on the Bermuda Platform, human intervention may be required to mitigate the decline of seagrass in Bermuda.

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Acknowledgments

Water quality data were collected and analyzed by J. N. Boyer and H. O. Briceño in the Southeast Environmental Research Program at Florida International University under contract from The Bermuda Government. We thank Anson Nash, Jan Locke, Katie Dilke, Kascia White, Sarah Gosling, and Sara Wilson for many hours of help in the field and laboratory.

Funding

The Department of Conservation Services (now the Department of Environment and Natural Resources) of the Government of Bermuda provided logistics and financial support for this work. Support for WJK was provided by the Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, one of the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science in the National Ocean Service within the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; financial support for KAC and Katie Dilke was provided by Mr. Bruce Dilke. This is contribution #137 from the Center for Coastal Oceans Research in the Institute of Water and Environment at Florida International University and contribution #277 of the Bermuda Biodiversity Project series, Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo, Bermuda Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Coastal Oceans Research, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St., Miami, FL, 33199, USA

    James W. Fourqurean

  2. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of Bermuda, Shorelands, 17 North Shore Road, Hamilton Parish, FL 04, Bermuda

    Sarah A. Manuel, Kathryn A. Coates & Simieon C. Massey

  3. Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, NCCOS, NOS, NOAA, 101 Pivers Island Rd, Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    W. Judson Kenworthy

  4. 109 Holly Lane, Beaufort, NC, 28516, USA

    W. Judson Kenworthy

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  1. James W. Fourqurean
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  5. W. Judson Kenworthy
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Correspondence to James W. Fourqurean.

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Communicated by Masahiro Nakaoka

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

Detailed description of water quality methods: ESM_1.pdf (PDF 78 kb)

ESM 2

Time series plots of water quality data from all 17 permanent monitoring stations: ESM_2.pdf (PDF 1150 kb)

ESM 3

Time series plots of measured seagrass metrics from all 17 permanent monitoring stations: ESM_3.pdf (PDF 988 kb)

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Fourqurean, J.W., Manuel, S.A., Coates, K.A. et al. Decadal Monitoring in Bermuda Shows a Widespread Loss of Seagrasses Attributable to Overgrazing by the Green Sea Turtle Chelonia mydas. Estuaries and Coasts 42, 1524–1540 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-019-00587-1

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