Ecologia alimentar e impacto dos resíduos sólidos nas tartarugas marinhas no Estado do Ceará

• Ano de defesa: 2021
• Autor(a) principal: Feitosa, Alice Frota
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Espécies-Quelônios; Espécies- ameaça; Conservação Biológica
• Link de acesso: http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/60743

Sea turtles are migratory and cosmopolitan species, with a complex life cycle and only seven species in the world. Of the seven species recorded worldwide, five occur in Brazil: loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), olive turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) and leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) for breeding and feeding purposes. Due to the drastic reduction of sea turtles over the last decades, the threat to populations of Brazilian species is alarming, with all species at risk of extinction. It is still a common scenario to stranding on Ceará's beaches with suspicion of ingestion of garbage or harmful interaction with fishing gear, most of the time, of dead turtles. In view of this, this research aims to define and typify the feeding of sea turtles in Ceará, focusing on garbage ingestion, in addition to recording and investigating the motivations for stranding these specimens on the beaches of the state of Ceará. Gastrointestinal content analysis was used as a means of investigating food items. Collections were performed between February 2019 and September 2020, totaling 25 samples, with only 18 necropsied. Of this total, 20 belonged to the species C. mydas (15 young and 5 adults, 10 females, 8 without a defined sex and only two males), two L. olivacea (adult females) and three E. imbricata (female, two young and one adult). As a result, 22 ingested some type of solid waste (SR) and three had interaction with fishing gear. It is also noteworthy that in November/2019 the oil spill was reported as one of the biggest environmental disasters in the country, and, of the 25 samples, 17 specimens were affected, and it is possible to associate this ingestion with the cause of death in animals that could be necropsied. After analyzing the food items, 58 taxonomic groups were identified, being 12 phyla, 15 classes, 24 genera and 22 species (Table 03). There was no record of any food item that had not been previously registered on the coast of Ceará. The research and its methodologies were carried out with authorization via a License issued by the Biodiversity Information and Authorization System (SISBIO), number 53083-8.