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Updated: May 19, 2026
Data Collection on Marine Litter Ingestion in Sea Turtles and Thresholds for Good Environmental Status
Published on: May 18, 2019
Relationships between carapace sizes and plasma major and trace element status in captive hawksbill sea turtles
Kazuyuki Suzuki1, Jun Noda, Makio Yanagisawa
1School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, 582 Midorimati, Bunnkyoudai, Ebetsu, Hokkaido 069-8501, Japan.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationships between carapace parameters as indicators of age and plasma elements in 25 captive hawksbill sea turtles. Particle-induced X-ray emission allowed detection of 23 trace and major elements. There were significant but weak correlations between the virtual carapace surface area and plasma bromide (r = -0.552, P<0.01), phosphorus (r = 0.547, P<0.01), lead (r =-0.434, P<0.05) and strontium (r = 0.599, P<0.01), while there were no significant correlations with other elements. These results suggest that major and trace plasma elements in captive sea turtles show almost no variation with carapace parameters, suggesting that the increase in plasma elements seen in wild sea turtles might be the result of marine pollution.
