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The Behaviour, Activity Pattern and Substrate Preferences of Green AEW-80439 MSc Thesis Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management The behaviour, activity pattern and substrate use of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in a heavily grazed seagrass meadow, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Iris (I.I.) de Winter Registration number WU: 890216 963 090 Thesis serial number WU: 014/2012 Registration number RU: 4178696 Thesis serial number RU: 410 Date: 05-07-2012 Supervisors: Dr. Rudi (R.M.M.) Roijackers (Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands) Marjolijn (M.J.A.) Christianen (Environmental Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) Dr. Marieke (M.M.) van Katwijk (Environmental Science, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands) The behaviour, activity pattern and substrate use of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in a heavily grazed seagrass meadow, East Kalimantan, Indonesia Iris (I.I.) de Winter Master Biology, specialization Ecology Department of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Wageningen University and Research Centre Department of Environmental Sciences Radboud University Nijmegen Registration number WU: 890216 963 090 Thesis serial number WU: 014/2012 Registration number RU: 4178696 Thesis serial number RU: 410 Thesis code: AEW-80439 Supervisors: Wageningen University Dr. Rudi (R.M.M.) Rooijackers Radboud University Nijmegen Marjolijn (M.J.A.) Christianen Dr. Marieke (M.M.) van Katwijk Title page photograph: Green turtle, Chelonia mydas (I. de Winter, 26-01-2012) Table of contents Preface .................................................................................................................................................... II Summary ................................................................................................................................................ III 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 2. Methods .............................................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Study site ....................................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Observations ................................................................................................................................. 3 2.3 Statistical Analyses ........................................................................................................................ 6 3. Results ................................................................................................................................................. 8 3.1 Sex and size classes ....................................................................................................................... 8 3.2 Environmental factors ................................................................................................................... 8 3.3 General behaviour ...................................................................................................................... 11 3.4 Uncommon behaviour ................................................................................................................ 13 3.5 Aerial photographs...................................................................................................................... 14 3.6 Seagrass preferences .................................................................................................................. 14 4. Discussion .......................................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Sex and size classes ..................................................................................................................... 16 4.2 Environmental factors ................................................................................................................. 16 4.3 General behaviour ...................................................................................................................... 17 4.4 Uncommon behaviour ................................................................................................................ 18 4.5 Seagrass preferences .................................................................................................................. 19 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 20 Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................ 20 References ............................................................................................................................................ 21 Appendix 1 Tidal table .......................................................................................................................... 25 Appendix 2 Moon Calendar .................................................................................................................. 26 Appendix 3 Dive and Snorkel transects ................................................................................................ 28 Appendix 4 Output transformation depth sensor ................................................................................ 29 Appendix 5 Video-stills of uncommon behaviour ................................................................................. 30 Behaviour, activity pattern and substrate use of green turtles I Preface For this master thesis I worked together with Peter van Leent (MSc student) within the project of Marjolijn Christianen (PhD candidate) from the Radboud University (RU) entitled: “Interactive effects of hydrodynamic stress and green turtle grazing on seagrass gap dynamics, Derawan, Indonesia”. Because the seagrass meadow around Derawan island has an extraordinary high density of green turtles and consequently a low seagrass biomass, I became interested in the potential behavioural adaptations of green turtles to these unique circumstances. Therefore, I was really motivated to perform this behavioural study on the endangered green turtles (Chelonia mydas) within this area, entitled: “The behaviour, activity pattern and substrate use of green turtles in a heavily grazed seagrass meadow, East Kalimantan, Indonesia”. My aim is to publish this work in a scientific journal. By performing this second thesis project within my MSc Biology (Wageningen University) under the supervision of experienced researchers, I have gained more experience in all practical aspects of designing a detailed research project. Hereby, I want to thank all my supervisors (Marjolijn J.A. Christianen, Dr. Marieke M. van Katwijk and Dr. Rudi M. Roijackers) for their guidance within this project, my field partners and dive buddies (Peter van Leent, Jelco van Brakel, Sara Lambrecht, Hans Wolkers, Ger van Leent, Gerard/Inge/Martijn de Winter) for their support in the field and Anne Baauw for her support during the writing process. Furthermore, I want to thank Ibu Heldi, Combodia and Salsia and Pak Dirman, John, Udin and Wawan for their local and logistic support and the following funds for their financial support: Dr. Hendrik Muller, Dr. Christine Buisman, Alberta Mennega and the FONA. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to gain additional research skills and expertise through performing this thesis project, which will be very valuable for my future career in the field of biological research. Iris I. de Winter Behaviour, activity pattern and substrate use of green turtles II Summary Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) spend most of their time in seagrass meadows, their main coastal foraging areas. The turtles’ behaviour, daily activity cycle and spatial use within these areas are still poorly understood, although understanding these patterns is of primary importance to improve the turtles’ conservation management. Our study has been conducted in a pristine Indo-Pacific seagrass meadow, which is prone to a very high turtle density and a relatively low seagrass biomass. This provides us with the opportunity to test for the first time the hypothesis that the daily activity cycle, behaviour and substrate use of green turtles is determined by a high turtle density, and therefore low seagrass biomass, under different environmental circumstances. To this end, we have used snorkel and dive transects to record individual behavioural characteristics in combination with external environmental influences. Aerial photography was used to get more insight into the turtles’ spatial distribution on the seagrass meadow. This study suggests that the green turtles in this system have maximized their grazing efforts by foraging during all daylight hours, as long as the water depth is sufficiently high to enter the seagrass. In addition, our results indicate that high moonlight intensities during the night stimulate feeding after daylight hours. Furthermore, the turtles have adopted some unique strategies, probably to meet their energy demands, such as digging and feeding in gaps on the belowground parts of seagrasses. They were also observed to use invertebrates as an alternative food source. The aerial photographs of the seagrass meadow show as well that turtles often feed in gaps. We suggest that the high grazing pressure, specific behavioural patterns and physical disturbances
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