Environmental Drivers of Habitat Use by Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Arabian Gulf (Qatar)

Marshall, Christopher D.; Cullen, Joshua A.; Al-Ansi, Mehsin; Hamza, Shafeeq; Abdel-Moati, Mohamed A.

doi:10.3389/fmars.2020.549575

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Previous studies suggest temperature as well as benthic structure as important factors governing habitat use [ 51 – 53 ], which might explain the differences in abundance we recorded across atolls. Hawksbills in the Arabian Gulf have been documented to migrate to deeper water during hotter months [ 53 ]. This would coincide with the fluctuation observed on B.Dhonfanu, which is an island on the inside of an atoll.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

A brighter future? Stable and growing sea turtle populations in the Republic of Maldives

Hudgins¹,

Hudgins

Köhnk³

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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The Indian Ocean represents a significant data gap in the evaluation of sea turtle population status and trends. Like many small island states, the Republic of Maldives has limited baseline data, capacity and resources to gather information on sea turtle abundance, distribution and trends to evaluate their conservation status. We applied a Robust Design methodology to convert opportunistic photographic identification records into estimates of abundance and key demographic parameters for hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the Republic of Maldives. Photographs were collected ad hoc by marine biologists and citizen scientists around the country from May 2016 to November 2019. Across 10 sites in four atolls, we identified 325 unique hawksbill turtles and 291 unique green turtles—where most were juveniles. Our analyses suggest that, even when controlling for survey effort and detectability dynamics, the populations of both species are stable and/or increasing in the short term at many reefs in the Maldives and the country appears to provide excellent habitat for recruiting juvenile turtles of both species. Our results represent one of the first empirical estimations of sea turtle population trends that account for detectability. This approach provides a cost-effective way for small island states in the Global South to evaluate threats to wildlife while accounting for biases inherent in community science data.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

A brighter future? Stable and growing sea turtle populations in the Republic of Maldives

Hudgins¹,

Hudgins

Köhnk³

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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“…Hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) spend most of their time feeding on foraging grounds in shallow waters near the coasts of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE while spending only a small portion of their life nesting on Iranian coasts (Pilcher et al, 2014). In summer, when the SST rises to 33 • C, hawksbills leave shallow foraging grounds and move northward to deeper waters (30-50 m) of the Persian Gulf (Pilcher et al, 2014;Marshall et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Epibiont Assemblages on Nesting Hawksbill Turtles Show Site-Specificity in the Persian Gulf

et al. 2021

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Sea turtle epibionts can provide insights into the hosts' habitat use. However, at present, there is a lack of information on sea turtle epibiont communities in many locations worldwide. Here, we describe the epibiont communities of 46 hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Persian Gulf. Specifically, we sampled 28 turtles from the Dayyer-Nakhiloo National Park (DNNP) in the northern Gulf and 18 turtles from Shibderaz beach in the Strait of Hormuz. A total of 54 macro, meio, and micro-epibiont taxa were identified, including 46 taxa from Shibderaz and 29 taxa from DNNP. The barnacles Chelonibia testudinaria and Platylepas hexastylos, as well as harpacticoid copepods and Rotaliid foraminifers, had the highest frequency of occurrence found on almost all turtle individuals. Harpacticoids were the most abundant epizoic taxa (19.55 ± 3.9 ind. per 9 cm2) followed by forams (Quinqueloculina spp.: 6.25 ± 1.5 ind. per 9 cm2 and Rotaliids: 6.02 ± 1.3 ind. per 9 cm2). Our results showed significant differences between the study sites in the composition of micro and macro-epibiont communities found on hawksbill turtles. We speculate that the differences in epibiont communities were largely influenced by local environmental conditions.

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“…The hawksbill sea turtle is listed as critically endangered with a decreasing status ( Mortimer and Donnelly, 2008 ). In the Arabian Gulf, the hawksbill sea turtle faces threats due to rapid coastal expansion, widespread loss of marine habitat and climate change ( Marshall et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-Cultural Awareness and Attitudes Toward Threatened Animal Species

et al. 2022

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The preservation of our planet’s decreasing biodiversity is a global challenge. Human attitudes and preferences toward animals have profound impacts on conservation policies and decisions. To date, the vast majority of studies about human attitudes and concern toward animals have focused largely on western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic (i.e., WEIRD) populations. In order to mitigate biodiversity loss globally, an understanding of how humans make decisions about animals from multicultural perspectives is needed. The present study examines familiarity, liking and endorsement of government protection amongst six broad cultural groups living in Qatar for five threatened animal species indigenous to the Arabian Gulf. Our findings highlight similarities and differences across cultures toward animals. Overall, familiarity did not predict endorsement for government protection after liking was accounted for. Liking, however, emerged as an important predictor of endorsement for government protection across cultures, although the degree of animal liking varied culturally. WEIRD and South East Asian participants showed similar and more positive attitudes toward animals compared to the other groups. Participants from the Arabian Gulf, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia responded similarly toward the animals. Interestingly, the Arabian Gulf group demonstrated significantly less liking and protection endorsement for animals, including those animals which play an important role in their culture. This research highlights intriguing avenues for future research and points to liking as a possible universal human attitude toward animals that influences decision making about conservation across all cultures while suggesting applications for improving education.

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Environmental Drivers of Habitat Use by Hawksbill Turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Arabian Gulf (Qatar)

Cited by 8 publications

References 60 publications

A brighter future? Stable and growing sea turtle populations in the Republic of Maldives

A brighter future? Stable and growing sea turtle populations in the Republic of Maldives

Epibiont Assemblages on Nesting Hawksbill Turtles Show Site-Specificity in the Persian Gulf

Cross-Cultural Awareness and Attitudes Toward Threatened Animal Species

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