Software for improved field surveys of nesting marine turtles

Abstract

Field data are still recorded on paper in many worldwide beach surveys of nesting marine turtles. The data must be subsequently transferred into an electronic database, and this can introduce errors in the dataset. To minimize such errors, the “Turtles” software was developed and piloted to record field data by one software user accompanying one Tortuguero in Akumal beaches, Quintana Roo, Mexico, from June 1st to July 31st during the night patrols. Comparisons were made between exported data from the software with the paper forms entered into a database (henceforth traditional). Preliminary assessment indicated that the software user tended to record a greater amount of metrics (i.e., an average of 18.3 fields ± 5.4 sd vs. 8.6 fields ± 2.1 sd recorded by the traditional method). The traditional method introduce three types of “errors” into a dataset: missing values in relevant fields (40.1%), different answers for the same value (9.8%), and inconsistent data (0.9%). Only 5.8% of these (missing values) were found with the software methodology. Although only tested by a single user, the software may suggest increased efficacy and warrants further examination to accurately assess the merit of replacing traditional methods of data recording for beach monitoring programmes.

Caretta caretta nesting activity on Akumal Beaches, Mexico

“…In Mexico, this species is protected under Federal laws and specific Norms such as NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 33 , which protects threatened species of flora and fauna, and NOM-162-SEMARNAT-2012 34 , which specifies the protection, recovery and management of the sea turtle populations and their nesting habitats. In Akumal, the nesting season is from May to November/December 4,34,35 . Four main beaches are protected by the Akumal Ecological Center (Fig.…”

“…The Quintana Roo beaches of the Yucatán Peninsula belong to the Western Caribbean Marine Ecoregion (the scale unit in the Marine Ecoregions of the World system) in the tropical northwestern Atlantic [1][2][3] . The beaches in this ecoregion served as nesting 4 and foraging grounds 5,6 for marine turtles long before humans settled on the American continent 7 . Human pressures have impeded sea turtle habitats in many ways.…”

FieldPrism: A system for creating snapshot vouchers from field images using photogrammetric markers and QR codes

“…Fortunately, software packages can streamline this cumbersome task. There are apps to help organize field observations (Maya‐Lastra, 2016 ; Powell et al, 2019 ; Seltzer, 2019 ), manage ecological surveys (Aanensen et al, 2009 ; Anastácio et al, 2017 ; Esri, 2019 ; Nowak et al, 2020 ), and measure specimens (Easlon and Bloom, 2014 ; Schrader et al, 2017 ; Weaver et al, 2020 ). However, the curation of digital images captured during fieldwork has received little attention.…”