Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) typically inhabit shallow coastal ecosystems, seagrass meadows, algal beds, mangroves, and sheltered bays, which provide them food and protection. However, habitat quality can vary spatio-temporally, influencing how turtles use these environments. Individuals exhibit strong site-fidelity, returning to distinct foraging areas where they rest, feed and conduct important ecological functions. Understanding habitat use is a fundamental component of conservation and long-term management, as foraging habitat characteristics can shape residency, home ranges, and intraspecific variability of movement strategies. This can inform appropriate conservation measures, which may be particular to each location’s context.
This study aims to assess factors influencing foraging and habitat use of green turtles across multiple foraging grounds in eastern Australia, each with unique environmental and anthropogenic characteristics. Telemetry-based species distribution models and spatial Generalised Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) will include environmental variables such as seagrass community type, depth, substrate, temperature, and human disturbance to determine which factors underpin movement patterns and their plasticity at each site.
Findings will deepen the understanding of foraging ecology, which may also be context-dependent. At a regional scale, identifying drivers of habitat use can indicate habitat quality and decline, supporting more targeted and location-specific conservation and management decisions.