Tartarugas-verdes (chelonia mydas) como espécie sentinela: a relação da degradação costeira com a fibropapilomatose

Abstract

The use of sentinel species such as green turtles (Chelonia mydas) can be an effective way to monitor degraded environments, considering that the marine ecosystem has undergone major restructuring and there is an imminent collapse of ecosystem services. The species is affected by fibropapillomatosis (FP), a debilitating disease characterized by tumors, with a multifactorial cause, associated with the presence of a herpes virus and strongly related to environmental degradation, although it is not clear what factors and how this relationship occurs. The present work analyzed the spatial and temporal variation of FP in green turtles in the Southwest Atlantic through the creation of heat maps, in addition to testing the influence of urbanization - measured by night light (NL), basic sanitation (BS) and distance from rivers - and the life stage of the turtles based on the carapace curvilinear length (CCL) with the prevalence and/or severity of FP through generalized additive models. Advanced information from the Beach Monitoring Projects of around 13,000 was used, which are stranded along a latitudinal gradient. The results show that the prevalence of FP has increased over time in most of the evaluated regions, suggesting a possible intensification of coastal degradation in the regions. NL, SB and CCL seem to be important in the prevalence of FP, however, other local factors must be associated with the manifestation of the disease. The monitoring of FP in green turtles is important not only to assess the pressure of human activities on the species, considered to be threatened with extinction, but also to monitor the quality of the entire ecosystem in which the turtle is inserted.