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Reproductive seasonality and environmental effects in green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting at Penang Island, Malaysia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2020

Sarahaizad Mohd Salleh Open the ORCID record for Sarahaizad Mohd Salleh [Opens in a new window] ,
Hideaki Nishizawa ,
Shahrul Anuar Mohd Sah  and
Ahmed Jalal Khan Chowdhury
Sarahaizad Mohd Salleh*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Hideaki Nishizawa
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto606-8501, Japan
Shahrul Anuar Mohd Sah
Affiliation:
School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia Center for Marine and Coastal Studies (CEMACS), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia
Ahmed Jalal Khan Chowdhury
Affiliation:
Department of Marine Science, Kulliyyah of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, 25200Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia
*
Author for correspondence: Sarahaizad Mohd Salleh, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

For species with environmental sex determination, understanding the relationship between reproduction and environmental factors is important for predicting their reproductive output. Here, we study intra-annual variation in green turtle nesting during the 2010–2016 seasons at Penang Island (5°16′28″–5°28′15″N 100°10′52″–100°11′55″E), Malaysia. The additive modelling on a monthly-basis number of nests shows that fluctuation in the number of nests relates to temperature in addition to month of year, rather than precipitation. The number of nests tended to be higher in response to higher temperature during March–July, whereas the lower temperature during August–February also tended to result in a relatively higher number of nests. Concentration of nests during March–July resulted from a shorter inter-nesting interval during warm temperatures, whereas relatively low temperatures may homogenize the temporal distribution of the number of nests. This study provides fundamental information for green turtle nesting seasonality in response to environmental change.

Keywords

Additive modellingprecipitationsea turtleseasonalitytemperature
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 100 , Issue 4 , June 2020 , pp. 645 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2020

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Footnotes

*

These authors contributed equally to the work.

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