A Proposed Origin of Nesting Location Divergence and a Shared Feeding Range in Brazilian Green Turtle Populations

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Abstract
Loss of most Brazilian continental shelf feeding areas due to sea level drops during Pleistocene glacial periods forced C. mydas into a few refugia shelf areas south of the bulge, from which Ascension Island nesting continued, and near the Guianas, where nesting return to Ascension became energetically impractical, and more local nesting areas were colonized. Sea level rise during interglacial periods made extensive continental shelf feeding areas again available along the Brazilian coast, allowing expansion of feeding ranges southeast from the Guianas refugia, and north and west from the eastern Brazilian refugia until overlap occurred along the bulge of Brazil as seen today. Contraction and expansion of feeding ranges could have occurred more than once with successive glacial and interglacial sea level changes.

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