PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #16: Landscape Ecology I.
Monday, August 5. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC
156
The recovery of nesting habitat with vegetation islands: Conservation challenges for the hawksbill sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata on Long Island, Antigua, West Indies.
Andrews, Kimberly*,1, Muenz, Tara1, 1 Institute of Ecology, Athens, GA, 30602
ABSTRACT- Sea turtle species have survived catastrophic events and flourished for 100 million years. Today, their numbers show drastic reductions such that all species have been assigned status ranging from threatened to critically endangered on a worldwide basis. Challenges that these turtles face stem from human activities such as pollution, fishing and incidental capture, and habitat loss. These occurrences have been found to impact every stage of their life cycle. The hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata, is indeed affected by all of these stresses, in particular, the loss of nesting habitat. Pasture Bay Beach, Long Island, Antigua, the site of a monitoring program since 1987, supports a relict population of nesting hawksbills challenged by both unnatural and natural forms of habitat loss. Within the past century, humans have modified the beach by reducing the amount of native vegetation and introducing non-native species. These anthropogenic alterations coupled with the occurrence of recent hurricanes have significantly reduced the availability of maritime forest for nesting habitat. Depletion of intact vegetation has contributed to habitat loss through coastal erosion further complicating the turtle's ability to successfully nest. Vegetation islands have been designed as an instrumental conservation measure to return critical native flora and preserve existing forest structure that is essential to nesting success. The islands have also been created as a tool to integrate critical habitat needs of the hawksbill with human economic and developmental needs. Implications for beach habitat restoration will be examined through an analysis of shifts in nesting distributions along Pasture Bay before and after the construction of the vegetation islands. Additionally, an assessment using aerial surveys taken in the fifteen-year duration of the project will be performed. An understanding of successful restoration attempts will aid in the formulation of effective conservation measures both on Pasture Bay and other Caribbean hawksbill nesting habitats.
KEY WORDS: beach restoration, maritime vegetation, sea turtle, hawksbill