Spatiotemporal variation in Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtle nests and their influence on the abundance and reproductive
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Spatiotemporal variation in Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtle nests and their influence on the abundance and reproductive phenology of the sapro-necrophagous beetle Omorgus suberosus Martha L. Baena 1
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Carmen Huerta Crespo 2
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Marcela Sánchez Carrillo 2 & Federico Escobar 2
Received: 6 July 2020 / Revised: 24 September 2020 / Accepted: 28 September 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The olive ridley sea turtle, Lepidochelys olivacea (Eschscholtz, 1829), nests en masse in the protected natural area of La Escobilla, Mexico. On this beach, Omorgus suberosus (Fabricius, 1775), a sapro-necrophagous beetle, feeds on the sea turtles’ decomposing and live eggs and is considered to be a threat for the conservation of L. olivacea. However, the abundance and reproductive phenology of O. suberosus in relation to the spatial and temporal availability of this food resource are unknown. We tested two alternative hypotheses during the 2013–2014 nesting season of L. olivacea: (i) abundance and female reproductive phenology of beetles are determined by the spatial and temporal availability of decomposing eggs that accumulate during the turtle nesting season, and (ii) abundance and female reproductive phenology of beetles are related to the increase in the concentration of seasonal and/or new turtle nests. Twenty-four plots (1 m2) were sampled in three areas with different turtle nesting densities. Spatially, beetle abundance was greater where turtle nest density was high and decomposed eggs were abundant. At the temporal level, old nests (> 45 days after egg deposition) were abundant and the presence of seasonal and new nests (~ 45 or fewer days after egg deposition) appeared to trigger sexual maturation in female beetles. Immature female beetles were more abundant throughout the turtles’ nesting season, and mature females were only abundant during the turtle arribadas with the highest number of seasonal nests. We conclude that abundance and female reproductive phenology of O. suberosus females are influenced by the quantity and quality of the resource. These findings are useful to understand the interaction of L. olivacea with other species and to strengthen the conservation plans of this turtle species. Keywords Resource quantity and quality . Turtle nesting area . Sexual female maturation stage . Population dynamics
Introduction The resource concentration hypothesis (Root 1973) posits that more abundant resources are more likely to be found and exploited by organisms (Southwood 1961; AlckminCommunicated by: Oliver Hawlitschek Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01704-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Federico Escobar [email protected] 1
Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Av. Luis Castelazo Ayala s/n Col. Industrial Ánimas, C.P., 91190 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
2
Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología, A. C., car
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