Nesting ecology of hawksbill turtles, Eretmochelys imbricata, in an extreme environmental setting

PLoS One. 2018 Sep 7;13(9):e0203257. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203257. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Relatively few details of hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) nesting ecology exist within the Arabian Gulf. Moreover, little is known about how their nesting dynamics compare to nesting populations throughout the rest of the world. Due to the extreme environmental setting, nesting ecology of hawksbills in the Arabian Gulf is of significant interest to researchers and conservationists. The current research reports on a long-term tagging and monitoring program undertaken at Fuwairit beach, Qatar. To investigate nesting behavior, site surveys and tagging were employed from 2010 to 2016. Presence of nests and clutch sizes were confirmed by excavation. Over the entire study period, nesting hawksbills had a mean curved carapace length of 70.8 cm (SD±2.8). A total 187 nests were confirmed, which contained a mean 78.9 eggs per clutch (SD±17.1), over an annual nesting season that lasted an average of 52.2 days (SD±6.3) from the start of April to the start of June. Meta-analysis with other global regions showed these characteristics to be significantly reduced when compared to nesting hawksbills from other populations. Meteorological data analysis showed air temperatures in the Arabian Gulf to increase on average 13.2°C (SD±0.26) from start to the end of nesting annually, which is significantly greater than other global nesting regions. Their smaller body size and reduced fecundity coupled with the extreme change in ambient air temperatures support the hypothesis that hawksbills in the region are more at risk than the already critically endangered hawksbill populations elsewhere in the world.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Body Size
  • Clutch Size
  • Ecosystem
  • Endangered Species
  • Extreme Environments
  • Female
  • Male
  • Meteorological Concepts
  • Nesting Behavior / physiology*
  • Qatar
  • Seasons
  • Temperature
  • Turtles / anatomy & histology
  • Turtles / physiology*

Grants and funding

The funder, Qatar Petroleum, approved the publishing of this work, but had no role in study design, data collection and analysis or preparation of the manuscript. We have the following interests to declare: This study was funded and the work was approved for publication by Qatar Petroleum. Author Christopher D Marshall was supported by grant number 5-642-1-110 from the Qatar National Research Fund. Author Salman Fahad Al-Mohanady (SFM) is employed by Ras Laffan Industrial City (which is administrated by Qatar Petroleum). Ras Laffan Industrial City provided support in the form of salary for author SFM, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.