Dear colleagues, We are pleased to announce the publication of the following article which identifies a common migration corridor shared by sea turtles, fish and marine mammals:
Pendoley KL, Schofield G, Whittock PA, Ierodiaconou D, Hays GC (2014). Protected species use of a coastal marine migratory corridor connecting marine protected areas. Marine Biology. DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2433-7 The establishment of protected corridors linking the breeding and foraging grounds of many migratory species remains deficient, particularly in the world's oceans. For example, Australia has recently established a network of Commonwealth Marine Reserves, supplementing existing State reserves, to protect a wide range of resident and migratory marine species; however, the routes used by mobile species to access these sites are often unknown. The flatback marine turtle (Natator depressus) is endemic to the continental shelf of Australia, yet information is not available about how this species uses the marine area. We used a geospatial approach to delineate a coastal corridor from 73 adult female flatback postnesting migratory tracks from four rookeries along the north-west coast of Australia. A core corridor of 1,150 km length and 30,800 km2 area was defined, of which 52 % fell within 11 reserves, leaving 48 % (of equivalent size to several Commonwealth Reserves) of the corridor outside of the reserve network. Despite limited data being available for other marine wildlife in this region, humpback whale migratory tracks overlapped with 96 % of the core corridor, while the tracks of three other species overlapped by 5-10 % (blue whales, olive ridley turtles, whale sharks). The overlap in the distribution ranges of at least 20 other marine vertebrates (dugong, cetaceans, marine turtles, sea snakes, crocodiles, sharks) with the corridor also imply potential use. In conclusion, this study provides valuable information towards proposing new locations requiring protection, as well as identifying high-priority network linkages between existing marine protected areas. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-014-2433-7 If you are interested but cannot access this article online please email me for a pdf. Cheers, Graeme Professor Graeme Hays School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University Warrnambool Campus, PO Box 423, Warrnambool, VIC 3280 (+61 3 55633311) http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=7rc3SmAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao Recent highlights: Hays GC, Christensen A, Fossette S, Schofield G, Talbot J, Mariani P. (2014). Route optimisation and solving Zermelo's navigation problem during long distance migration in cross flows. Ecology Letters 17, 137-143. doi: 10.1111/ele/12219 Hinder SL, Gravenor MB, Edwards M, Ostle C, Bodger OG, Lee PLM, Walne AW, Hays GC (2014). Multi-decadal range changes vs thermal adaptation for north east Atlantic oceanic copepods in the face of climate change. Global Change Biology 20, 140-146. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12387 Important Notice: The contents of this email are intended solely for the named addressee and are confidential; any unauthorised use, reproduction or storage of the contents is expressly prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please delete it and any attachments immediately and advise the sender by return email or telephone. Deakin University does not warrant that this email and any attachments are error or virus free.
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