Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:14:30.071Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The fatty acid composition of the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea and its jellyfish prey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

D. L. Holland ,
J. Davenport  and
J. East
D. L. Holland
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, Marine Science Laboratories, University College of North Wales, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY
J. Davenport
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, Marine Science Laboratories, University College of North Wales, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY
J. East
Affiliation:
School of Ocean Sciences, Marine Science Laboratories, University College of North Wales, Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, LL59 5EY
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea (L.) studied was a male, weighing 916 kg, with a total dorsal length of 291 cm. It was beached on the Welsh coast, UK in September 1988 and is currently the largest leatherback ever recorded.

Total lipid formed between 87.5 and 95.4% of the dry weight of representative samples of the blubber and 43.0% and 4.9% of the liver and pectoral muscle respectively. High levels of neutral lipid in the liver (79.0% of the total lipid) as well as the blubber (87.6–99.9% of the total lipid) suggest an important energy storage function for these tissues.

Overall, with the notable exception of 22:lwll, fatty acids which are found in a putative jellyfish diet of Rhizostoma, Amelia, Cyanea and Chrysaora are also present in the leatherback liver and muscle, blubber and other fatty tissues. Fatty acid 22:lwll is present in the jellyfish samples, but is absent or at trace levels only in the leatherback tissues (0.1–0.3% of the total fatty acids).

The polyunsaturated fatty acids of the w3 series 20:5w3, 22:5w3 and 22:6w3 are well represented in leatherback adipose tissues, muscle and liver as well as in the jellyfish examined. The leatherback and jellyfish lipids are therefore marine in character, but are also similar to terrestrial animal lipid in having a high proportion of fatty acids of the w6 series, principally arachidonic acid, 20:4w6. The significant levels of 20:4w6 in jellyfish total lipid (9.7–20.0% of the total fatty acids) and in the leatherback neutral lipid (1.0–10.9% of the total fatty acids) and phospholipid (0.6–15.5% of total fatty acids) fractions of all tissues sampled suggests that arachidonic acid assumes more importance in food chain relationships involving leatherbacks than in other marine food webs such as those involving fish.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 70 , Issue 4 , November 1990 , pp. 761 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackman, R.G., 1972. The analysis of fatty acids and related materials by gas liquid chromatography. In Progress in the Chemistry of Fats and Other Lipids, vol. 12 (ed. R.T., Holman), pp. 164–284. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Ackman, R.G. & Burgher, R.D., 1964. Cod liver oil: component fatty acids as determined by gas-liquid chromatography. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 21, 319–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ackman, R.G. & Burgher, R.D., 1965. Cod liver oil fatty acids as secondary reference standards in the GLC of polyunsaturated fatty acids of animal origin: analysis of a dermal oil of the Atlantic leatherback turtle. Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society, 42, 38–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ackman, R.G., Epstein, S. & Eaton, C.A., 1971. Differences in the fatty acid compositions of blubber fats from northwestern Atlantic finwhales (Balaenoptera physalus) and harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandica). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 40B, 683–697.Google ScholarPubMed
Bleakney, J.S., 1965. Reports of marine turtles from New England and eastern Canada. Canadian Field Naturalist, 79, 120–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bottino, N.R., 1974. The fatty acids of Antarctic phytoplankton and euphausiids. Fatty acid exchange among trophic levels in the Ross Sea. Marine Biology, 27, 197–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brongersma, L.D., 1969. Miscellaneous notes on turtles, IIA, IIB. Proceedings. Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (ser. C), 72, 76–102.Google Scholar
Davenport J.D., Holland, D.L. & East, J., 1990. Thermal and biochemical characteristics of the lipids of the leatherback turtle Dermochelys coriacea: evidence of endothermy. journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 70, 33–41.Google Scholar
Eckert, K.L. & Luginbuhle, C, 1988. Death of a giant. Marine Turtle Newsletter, 43, 1–3.Google Scholar
Folch, J., Lees, M. & Sloane-Stanley, G.H., 1957. A simple method for the isolation and purification of total lipids from animal tissues. Journal of Biochemistry, 226, 497–509.Google ScholarPubMed
Frair, W., Ackman, R.G. & Mrosovsky, N., 1972. Body temperature of Dermochelys coriacea: warm turtle from cold water. Science, New York, 177, 791–793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Greer, A.E., Lazell, J.D. & Wright, R.M., 1973. Anatomical evidence for a counter-current heat exchanger in the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). Nature, London, 244, 181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartog, J.C. Den & Nierop, M.M. Van, 1984. A study on the gut contents of six leathery turtles, Dermochelys coriacea (Linnaeus) (Reptilia: Testudines: Dermochelydae) from British waters and from the Netherlands. Zoologische Verhandelingen, no. 200, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Holland, D.L., Crisp, D.J. & East, J., 1983. Changes in the fatty acid composition of the ocean-strider Halobates fijiensis (Heteroptera: Gerridae) after starvation. Marine Biology Letters, 4, 259–265.Google Scholar
Holland, D.L., 1987. Lipid biochemistry of barnacles. In Barnacle Biology (ed. A.J., Southward), P.C.H. pp. 227–248. Rotterdam: A.A. Baltema. [Crustacean Issue 5.]Google Scholar
Lee, R.F., 1974. Lipid composition of the copepod Calanus hyperboreus from the Arctic Ocean. Changes with depth and season. Marine Biology, 26, 313–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockyer, C.H., McConnell, L.L. & Waters, T.D., 1984. The biochemical composition of fin whale blubber. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 62, 2553–2562.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, R.J. & Sargent, J.R., 1973. Studies on the lipid metabolism of some oceanic crustaceans. Marine Biology, 22, 77–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mrosovsky, N., 1980. Thermal biology of sea turtles. American Zoologist, 20, 531–547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mrosovsky, N. & Pritchard, P.C.H., 1971. Body temperatures of Dermochelys coriacea and other sea turtles. Copeia, 1971, 624–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nishimura, S., 1964. Considerations on the migration of the leatherback turtle, Dermochelys coriacea (L.) in Japanese and adjacent waters. Publications of the Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, 12, 177–189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T.R., 1979. Some ecological, experimental and evolutionary aspects of the upwelling ecosystem. South African Journal of Science, 75, 536–540.Google Scholar
Piretti, M.V., Zuppa, F., Pagliuca, G. & Taioli, F., 1988. Investigation of the seasonal variations of the fatty acid constituents in selected tissues of the bivalve mollusc Scapherea inaequivalvis (Bruguiere). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 89B, 183–187.Google Scholar
Pritchard, P.C.H., 1969. Sea turtles of the Guianos. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, 13, 85–140.Google Scholar
Sargent, J.R. & Whittle, K.J., 1981. Lipids and hydrocarbons in the marine food web. In Analysis of Marine Ecosystems (ed. Longhurst, A. R.), pp. 491–533. Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tooke, N.E. & Holland, D.L., 1985. Phospholipid fatty acid composition and cold tolerance in two species of barnacle, Balanus balanoides (L.) and Elminius modestus Darwin. I. Summer versus winter variations in phospholipid fatty acid composition of whole animals. Journal of Experi-mental Marine Biology and Ecology, 87, 241–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar