Publications by authors named "George R Hughes"
Article Synopsis
- Sea turtles group together on beaches during nesting but face risks from coastal threats, leading to the establishment of Marine Protection Areas (MPAs) to help their populations recover, though many are still new and untested.
- South Africa has one of the longest-running turtle conservation programs, active since 1963, allowing researchers to study the long-term effects of these MPAs on loggerhead and leatherback turtles, which have different reproductive traits.
- The study found that while loggerhead turtle populations dramatically increased over the years, leatherback turtles showed initial growth followed by a plateau, highlighting that MPAs can be beneficial but must be tailored to the specific needs of different turtle species and monitored for changing environmental pressures.
Restriction-site analyses of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) reveal substantial phylogeographic structure among major nesting populations in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans and the Mediterranean sea. Based on 176 samples from eight nesting populations, most breeding colonies were distinguished from other assayed nesting locations by diagnostic and often fixed restriction-site differences, indicating a strong propensity for natal homing by nesting females. Phylogenetic analyses revealed two distinctive matrilines in the loggerhead turtle that differ by a mean estimated sequence divergence p = 0.
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