RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Region-specific magnetic field structure sea turtle populations
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 630152
DO 10.1101/630152
A1 Sahmorie J.K. Cameron
A1 Miguel Baltazar-Soares
A1 Christophe Eizaguirre
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/05/07/630152.abstract
AB Philopatry and long distance migrations are common in the animal kingdom, of which sea turtles are flagship examples. Recent studies have suggested sea turtles use the Earth’s magnetic field to navigate across ocean basins to return to their natal area; yet the mechanisms underlying this process remain unknown. If true, the genetic structure at nesting sites should positively correlate with differences in location-specific magnetic vectors within nesting regions. Here, we confirm this working hypothesis and demonstrate transspecies adaptation of sea turtles to local magnetic field vectors in certain nesting regions of the world, but not others. We describe magneto-sensing regions as characterized by sharp clines of total and vertical field intensity vectors offering the navigation cues that could increase philopatric accuracy and promote genetic structuring between sea turtle populations.