MarTurtSI, a global database of stable isotope analyses of marine turtles

Marine turtles are both flagship species of conservation concern and indicators of ocean health. As highly migratory species, and despite substantial research effort focusing on nesting females and satellite tagging studies, we still know little about the trophic ecology and habitat use of immature stages and males. Consequently, marine turtle biologists began using stable isotope analyses in the last decade to elucidate various aspects of trophic ecology, including habitat use and trophic position. This has resulted in a burgeoning but largely disconnected literature of mostly single-species case studies. Here we comprehensively synthesize this body of work into a unified data repository, the MarTurtSI database. MarTurtSI contains stable isotope data from six of seven marine turtle species ranging from juveniles to adults, in different developmental, feeding, and breeding habitats across multiple ocean basins. MarTurtSI will be curated and updated with the aim of enabling continued comprehensive and global investigations into the trophic ecology of marine turtles especially in the face of climate change and other conservation challenges.