The Benefits of Nest Relocation Extend Far Beyond Recruitment: A Rejoinder to Mrosovsky |
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Authors: | David A Pike |
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Institution: | (1) School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia |
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Abstract: | Individual sea turtle nests have an extremely low probability of producting adult turtles; thus the practice of moving nests
away from the ocean (where they will not be inundated by seawater) is a questionable conservation strategy. Recently in Environmental Management, Mrosovosky used the repeatability of nesting female turtles to place their eggs in certain locations to infer that some
females may consistently nest in areas which will be flooded, lowering the chance that any eggs will hatch. This information
was used to hypothesize that saving “doomed” sea turtle nests may then alter the genetic composition of the population, ultimately
resulting in turtles that nest in poor habitats. Here I question Mrosovosky’s argument by focusing on several weaknesses inherent
in the original article, namely that at present there is no evidence to suggest that nest-site selection is a heritable trait
with an underlying genetic basis. |
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Keywords: | Demography Environmental conservation Nest relocation Sea turtle |
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