Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Science (MS)
Major/Program
Biology
First Advisor's Name
James Fourqurean
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Chair
Second Advisor's Name
Michael Heithaus
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Third Advisor's Name
WIlliam Anderson
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Member
Keywords
food web, grazing, herbivory, isotope mixing models, recapture, resource availability, seagrass, stable isotopes
Date of Defense
3-27-2017
Abstract
Green sea turtles in Bermuda are overgrazing the seagrasses on which later life stages are thought to specialize. I hypothesized that larger green turtles in Bermuda would display individual diet specializations during seagrass scarcity. Stable isotope methods were used to determine the diet composition of green sea turtles from the Bermuda Platform as a function of size class and in turtles captured in successive years. Individual turtles had a wide range of diets, however, the variation in diets was driven by differences among size class rather than within the size classes of larger turtles, indicating that green turtles undergo a dietary ontogenetic shift during their residency on the Bermuda Platform and no clear specialization of diets among late-stage individuals. The apparent lack of dietary specialization of larger turtles indicates that older turtles are not diversifying their diets in response to the drastic reductions in seagrass in Bermuda.
Identifier
FIDC001794
ORCID
orcid.org/0000-0002-5188-3531
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Burgett, Claire Margaret, "Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas) in Bermuda Exhibit an Ontogenetic Diet Shift despite Overexploitation of Resources in their Developmental Habitat" (2017). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3267.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3267
Included in
Biology Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Zoology Commons
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