 Honours student
Research Project
Trophic ecology of green turtles in Hervey Bay
As large herbivores, green turtles impact seagrass and algae abundance and represent an essential trophic pathway over expansive coastal marine habitats. This project uses both field data on diet and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses to determine the trophic status of different size classes of green turtles in Hervey Bay. This information will aid our interpretation of spatial and temporal shifts in trophic status of turtles in different foraging areas through determining site-specific isotopic signatures of component green turtle foraging areas along the east Australian coast. These data will allow us to determine the relative importance of different foraging areas for the major green turtle nesting beaches in the southern Great Barrier Reef.
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