Epibionts on the Carapaces of Sick and Injured Sea Turtles in Southwest Florida during a Time of Frequent Red Tide

Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Gilchrist, Sandra

Keywords

Epibionts, Sea Turtles, Fouling Organisms

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

The carapaces of 10 sick and/or injured sea turtles from southwest Florida were sampled for epibiotic organisms from September 2005 to September 2006, a period during which red tide, due to Karenia brevis, was frequent. Digital photographs were taken of the carapaces, and physical samples were taken of the epibionts. Ninety percent of the sampled turtles were juveniles or subadults. Although there was no significant difference between the epibionts on the turtles that were affected by red tide and those that were not, the data suggests a difference between the epibiont populations of adult and subadult sea turtles. The most common epibiotic organisms were Chelonibia sp. (turtle barnacles), Balanus sp. (acorn barnacles), Caprella sp. (skeleton shrimp), Bugula sp. (bushy bryozoan), and Spirorbis sp. Five epibiotic organisms were found that had not previously been published as epibionts on sea turtles: Ophiactis savignyi, Spirorbis spirorbis, Spirorbis tridentatus, Petrolisthes sp., and Crepidula aculeata.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS