Publication
Biochemical indices and life traits of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) from Cape Verde Islands
| dc.contributor.author | Vieira, Sara | |
| dc.contributor.author | Martins, Samir | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hawkes, Lucy A. | |
| dc.contributor.author | Marco, Adolfo | |
| dc.contributor.author | Chicharo, Alexandra | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2015-01-19T16:57:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2015-01-19T16:57:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2014 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2015-01-17T00:54:59Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is an endangered marine reptile for whom assessing population health requires knowledge of demographic parameters such as individual growth rate. In Cape Verde, as within several populations, adult female loggerhead sea turtles show a size-related behavioral and trophic dichotomy. While smaller females are associated with oceanic habitats, larger females tend to feed in neritic habitats, which is reflected in their physiological condition and in their offspring. The ratio of RNA/DNA provides a measure of cellular protein synthesis capacity, which varies depending on changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and food availability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the combined use of morphometric data and biochemical indices as predictors of the physiological condition of the females of distinct sizes and hatchlings during their nesting season and how temperature may influence the physiological condition on the offspring. Here we employed biochemical indices based on nucleic acid derived indices (standardized RNA/DNA ratio-sRD, RNA concentration and DNA concentration) in skin tissue as a potential predictor of recent growth rate in nesting females and hatchling loggerhead turtles. Our major findings were that the physiological condition of all nesting females (sRD) decreased during the nesting season, but that females associated with neritic habitats had a higher physiological condition than females associated with oceanic habitats. In addition, the amount of time required for a hatchling to right itself was negatively correlated with its physiological condition (sRD) and shaded nests produced hatchlings with lower sRD. Overall, our results showed that nucleic acid concentrations and ratios of RNA to DNA are an important tool as potential biomarkers of recent growth in marine turtles. Hence, as biochemical indices of instantaneous growth are likely temperature-, size- and age-dependent, the utility and validation of these indices on marine turtles stocks deserves further study. | por |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The authors thank the Cape Verde Ministry of Environment (General Direction for the Environment), INDP (National Fisheries Institution), the Canary Islands Government (D.G. Africa and D.G. Research and Universities), ICCM (Canarian Institution for Marine Sciences), the Andalusian Government (Andalusian Environmental Office) and AEGINA PROJECT (INTERREG IIIB) for funding and hosting them during this study. The authors also thank the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE - Operational Competitiveness Programme, and national funds through FCT - PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2011 for supporting the biochemical analysis. | por |
| dc.identifier.citation | Vieira, Sara; Martins, Samir; Hawkes, Lucy A.; Marco, Adolfo; Teodósio, M. Alexandra; Kerby, Jacob Lawrence. Biochemical Indices and Life Traits of Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta) from Cape Verde Islands, PLoS ONE, 9, 11, e112181-e112181, 2014. | por |
| dc.identifier.doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0112181 | |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1932-6203 | |
| dc.identifier.other | AUT: MCH00377; | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/5714 | |
| dc.language.iso | eng | por |
| dc.peerreviewed | yes | por |
| dc.publisher | Public Library of Science | por |
| dc.relation.publisherversion | http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0112181 | por |
| dc.subject | Turtles | por |
| dc.subject | Reptile physiology | por |
| dc.subject | Marine fish | por |
| dc.subject | Ocean temperature | por |
| dc.title | Biochemical indices and life traits of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) from Cape Verde Islands | por |
| dc.type | journal article | |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | |
| oaire.citation.issue | 11 | |
| oaire.citation.title | PLoS ONE | por |
| oaire.citation.volume | 9 | por |
| person.familyName | Teodosio | |
| person.givenName | Maria | |
| person.identifier.ciencia-id | AF10-647B-65FB | |
| person.identifier.orcid | 0000-0002-0939-9885 | |
| person.identifier.rid | B-5077-2013 | |
| person.identifier.scopus-author-id | 56196396700 | |
| rcaap.rights | openAccess | por |
| rcaap.type | article | por |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication | b39b2d6d-d6f5-4130-a9b9-4e7624d44676 | |
| relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery | b39b2d6d-d6f5-4130-a9b9-4e7624d44676 |