IDENTIFYING DATA NEEDS FOR SEA TURTLE DEMOGRAPHIC STUDIES: A DATA GAP ANALYSIS

BRANDON CHASCO; SUSAN E. PIACENZA; SELINA S. HEPPELL; MATTHEW D. RAMIREZ; NATASHA NEMYRE; MATHEW VANBEMMEL; JULIA NINA-MARIE HART; ALEXIA KENNEY; MARTHA PATRICIA RINCÓN DÍAZ

Charleston, SC

Simposio; 39th Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology & Conservation; 2019

International Sea Turtle Society

Population assessments of threatened and endangered sea turtle species are often limited by inadequate and incomplete demographic information, which prevents accurate estimation of population size and trend, and ultimately designation of conservation status. Many recent reports have sought to characterize global research priorities for sea turtles and have stressed the need to improve and increase data collection and vital rate estimation (both means and variance). However, as of yet, a robust and quantitative evaluation of where species-, region-, and stage-specific demographic data gaps exist has not been conducted for sea turtles. The primary objectives of this study are to perform a global literature review of sea turtle reproductive rates critical to population assessment, to identify data gaps based on study location, date of publication and sample sizes by species and region, and to develop recommendations for targeted research. We conducted a two-tiered literature search to compile studies that reported clutch size, clutch frequency, hatching success, remigration interval or breeding probability, hatchling sex ratio, and size of (first time) nesting females. We first performed a structured search of online literature databases (Web of Science, Sea Turtle Online Bibliography), sea turtle books, theses and dissertations, and pertinent global and regional journals and newsletters. We then performed an unstructured literature search by reviewing reference lists of papers found in the structured search. From this search, we have compiled more than 900 data sources from the primary and grey literature. Employing the Regional Management Unit (RMU) framework developed by Wallace et al. (2010), we will assess the quantity (e.g., number, length of studies) and quality (e.g., age of studies) of data for each demographic rate within each RMU. Resulting metadata and bibliographical information will be made available online. This study provides a valuable evaluation of sea turtle demographic rate parameters and knowledge gaps that can be used to guide future research efforts and parameterize demographic models for population assessment.