Daniela Alarcon

Daniela Alarcon
Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Master of Science
Ph.D. Student at University of Sunshine Coast, Australia

About

36
Publications
11,196
Reads
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343
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2019 - present
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Position
  • Special Education Projects Coordinator
Education
February 2012 - February 2014
James Cook University
Field of study
  • Protected Area Management.
May 2007 - August 2012
Universidad San Francisco de Quito
Field of study
  • Marine Ecology

Publications

Publications (36)
Article
Full-text available
Marine iguanas occasionally face severe food shortages because of algal dieback during El Niño events. Research on their adaptations to these periods has highlighted their unique ability to shrink in body length, which reduces their energetic needs. Additional mechanisms, like sustaining lower body temperatures and metabolic rates, could potentiall...
Article
Full-text available
Marine vertebrates, particularly green sea turtles, are especially vulnerable to plastic pollution through ingestion or entanglement. This study investigated wild juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) from two Ecuadorian national parks (Galápagos and Machallilla) to assess the prevalence of plastic pollution in their feces and its potential i...
Article
Full-text available
Ecuador hosts the southernmost nesting sites for hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Eastern Pacifc Ocean (EPO). Hawksbills are a highly threatened species whose populations are particularly vulnerable in the EPO (Gaos et al. 2010, 2018; Rguez-Barón et al. 2019). Ecuador consists of both mainland (herein referred to as Continental...
Article
Full-text available
The Eastern Tropical and South-Eastern Pacific region is of global biodiversity importance. At COP26, the governments of Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador committed to the expansion of existing MPAs to create a new Mega MPA, safeguarding the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor. It offers a profound step forward in conservation efforts...
Article
Full-text available
Forty‐seven free‐ranging sea turtles (46‐ Chelonia mydas , 1‐ Eretmochelys imbricata ) were examined via novel use of an endoscopy combined with a rectal enema to obtain large fecal sample volumes. The cloaca was insufflated using an endoscope, after which the bladder and rectum separated, allowing access to the colon. Environmental conditions and...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents novel baseline health parameters on the Española lava lizard (Microlophus delanonis). Blood samples and morphological measurements were taken on 51 lizards (21 males, 30 females) captured from three locations on the island of Española. Morphologic parameters measured included body weight, snout-vent length, and temperature. Bloo...
Chapter
Cetaceans are widely distributed globally and established in a range of different habitats, including, estuarine and coastal environments, offshore oceanic waters, and deep seas (Jefferson et al. 2015; Plagányi and Butterworth 2009). These animals play key roles in the function of the marine environment, are sentinels on the health of the ecosystem...
Chapter
In June of 2013, our team embarked on the first of what would be many projects investigating the health of Galápagos wildlife. With a permit from the Galápagos National Park (PNG) in progress, and the support of the Galápagos Science Center (GSC), three of us (Greg Lewbart, Max Hirschfeld, Ken Lohmann), along with PNG Ranger Juan Garcia and several...
Article
Full-text available
Information about blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) in the Eastern Tropical Pacific is scarce with only few whales sighted within the last decades. Molecular, photo ID and acoustic studies suggest a connectivity of Chilean and Antarctic blue whales to potential breeding areas off the coast of Peru and in the Galapagos, whereas blue whales of the...
Article
Full-text available
Plastic pollution (PP) is an ongoing, pervasive global problem that represents a risk to the Galápagos archipelago, despite it being one of the world's most pristine and well-protected regions. By working closely with citizen scientists, we aimed to quantify and map the magnitude and biological effects of PP. With macroplastic abundance ranging fro...
Article
Full-text available
Monitoring beach plastic contamination across space and time is necessary for understanding its sources and ecological effects, and for guiding mitigation. This is logistically and financially challenging, especially for microplastics. Citizen science represents an option for sampling accessible sites to support long term monitoring, but challenges...
Article
For decades, multiple anthropogenic stressors have threatened the Galápagos Islands. Widespread marine pollution such as oil spillage, persistent organic pollutants, metals and ocean plastic pollution has been linked to concerning changes in the ecophysiology and health of Galápagos species. Simultaneously, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fish...
Article
Full-text available
The Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) is an endemic pinniped to the Galapagos archipelago, and like most wild mammals, is at risk for anemia due to trauma, infectious disease, and poor nutrition. This study evaluated the health status of 26 juvenile Galapagos sea lions on the island of San Cristobal prior to evaluating 100 crossmatch combina...
Article
Marine species may exhibit genetic structure accompanied by phenotypic differentiation related to adaptation despite their high mobility. Two shape-based morphotypes have been identified for the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) in the Pacific Ocean: the south-central/western or yellow turtle and north-central/eastern or black turtle. The genetic diffe...
Preprint
Full-text available
Individual identification of sea turtles is important to study their biology and aide in conservation efforts. Traditional methods for identifying sea turtles that rely on physical or GPS tags can be expensive, and difficult to implement. Alternatively, the scale structure on the side of a turtle’s head has been shown to be specific to the individu...
Article
Full-text available
Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands and their unique biodiversity are a global conservation priority. We explored the presence, composition and environmental drivers of plastic contamination across the marine ecosystem at an island scale, investigated uptake in marine invertebrates and designed a systematic priority scoring analysis to identify the most vu...
Preprint
Full-text available
Climate change and marine pollution are intertwined in the Galapagos’ living laboratory, where unabated anthropogenic pollution is reshaping evolution in the Anthropocene.
Article
Killer whales (Orcinus orca) have strong social matrilineal bonds and form groups and long‐lasting associations, but little is known about their population or social structure in an equatorial setting such as the waters around the Galápagos Islands. Using 91 encounters and identification photographs from 1991 to 2017, we identified 64 killer whales...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The Galapagos has been well know as one of the most important sites in the Eastern Pacific in terms of nesting grounds for the green turtle, black morphotipe, (Chelonia mydas agassizii), with populations migrating from diferent feeding grounds to lay eggs in this oceanic archipelago. Many years of research have been able to measure predation and de...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Both Eastern and Western Pacific populations of Green Sea Turtles are sympatric in Galápagos Islands but their natal origins, developmental habitats, and migrations that are associated with reproduction are poorly understood. Individuals of the eastern Pacific Population tend to be heavily pigmented (black morphs) while those of the western Pacific...
Article
Full-text available
The complex processes involved with animal migration have long been a subject of biological interest, and broad-scale movement patterns of many marine turtle populations still remain unresolved. While it is widely accepted that once marine turtles reach sexual maturity they home to natal areas for nesting or reproduction, the role of philopatry to...
Article
Full-text available
The hawksbill turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, is a marine chelonian with a circum-global distribution, but the species is critically endangered and has nearly vanished from the eastern Pacific. Although reference blood parameter intervals have been published for many chelonian species and populations, including nesting Atlantic hawksbills, no such...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the spatial ecology of wide-ranging marine species is fundamental to advancing ecological research and species management. For marine turtles, genetic studies using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers have proven invaluable to characterize movement, particularly between rookeries (i.e. nesting sites) and foraging grounds. Hawksbill turt...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is currently listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, and no commercial use is permitted under CITES Appendix I. In 2008 Eastern Pacific hawksbills were considered as a non-viable population and new discernments about the eastern pacific population is currently in development. E. imbricata...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Photographic identification allows for an efficient and non-invasive technique for accurate recognition of individual sea turtles and to obtain population dynamics data. Traditional techniques such as marked identification tags are problematic due to a high tag loss rate and repeated animal manipulation. There is need for investigation into compute...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
alápagos is perhaps one of the most important sites in the world for some sea turtle populations. However, in-water biology studies are almost nonexistent. Current sea turtle species are key for the socio-ecological system, and are strictly protected. However, they are starting to be threatened by direct and indirect anthropogenic influences. The p...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The study of demography and sex ratios among populations is essential to gauge a population's health, but reliably determining the sex of juvenile and subadult sea turtles in the field has been a challenge for researchers. Previous approaches have included laparoscopy, which requires invasive procedures, or DNA fingerprinting methods, which are cos...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
There is a lack of knowledge about green sea turtle genetic composition in foraging and nesting habitats in Ecuadorean territory; however, little importance has been given to Chelonia mydas population dynamics in foraging and nesting habitats from Galápagos and mainland Ecuador. In order to ensure Ecuadorean green sea turtle populations viability a...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The growing demand for tourism opportunities and an increasing human population in the Galapagos Islands has led to increased boat traffic around the islands. Key species and ecosystems are under threat from boating and will likely continue to be affected, due to the manner these types of activities are handled, especially in the shallow bays close...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The green turtle (Chelonia mydas), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) are keystone and charismatic coastal marine species, with global distributions. Although they are internationally protected species, they are still seriously threatened (IUCN Red List CR: E.imbricata; EN: C.mydas: VU: L.oliva...
Chapter
Full-text available
Before the Galapagos Archipelago became famous thanks to Darwin’s work on the theory of natural selection, it already was a hub in the global economy as an eighteenth-century whaling ground. Now a marine reserve, Galapagos is one of the most popular destinations for nature tourism and whale observations in the world. Over the last two decades, tour...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Most research on sea turtles has been conducted on nesting beaches. In this context, the data that exists about the ecology and biology of this group of animals is generally on adult females. Taking into account that these animals remain underwater for almost 90% of their life cycle; there is an urgent need for long- term studies that consider all...

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