Mariela Pajuelo

Florida Museum of Natural History · Thompson Earth Systems Institute

A new species of softnose skate, Bathyraja chapmani n. sp., is described from two female specimens collected in deepwater off Lima, Peru (-11.933°,-78.15°), in the southeastern Pacific, at 1714 m deep, in a fishery for Patagonian toothfish. The new species is separated from other southeastern Pacific Bathyraja species by having the same color and s...

Population assessments conducted at reproductive sites of migratory species necessitate understanding the foraging-area origins of breeding individuals. Without this information, efforts to contextualize changes in breeding populations and develop effective management strategies are compromised. We used stable isotope analysis of tissue samples col...

The East Pacific (EP) leatherback population is listed by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Critically Endangered. Despite conservation efforts, mainly focused on nesting beaches, its population has declined by over 90% since the 1980s. A major current threat is fisheries bycatch, which has been primarily documented in small-scale gillnets...

Reports were compiled of sunfish (family Molidae) by‐catch in Peruvian small‐scale fisheries and sunfish by‐catch rates were estimated using data from shore‐based and onboard monitoring programmes. A total of 114 sunfishes were reported in the longline and gillnet fisheries along the Peru coast from 2005 to 2017. Systematic monitoring effort of sma...

In the eastern Pacific Ocean, whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) have mostly been studied off the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, and Baja California, Mexico. Recently, satellite telemetry data revealed connectivity between whale sharks off the Galápagos Islands and Peru. Historic and some recent observa- tions have reported rare occurrences of whale sh...

Full text available here: http://rdcu.be/lIuZ Intra-population variation in resource use has been increasingly reported for different taxa. In particular, foraging specialization of individuals has been quantified for various generalist populations. Because individual differences in resource use can have a great effect on a population’s ecological...

Assessments of large-scale disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, are problematic because while measurements of post-disturbance conditions are common, measurements of pre-disturbance baselines are only rarely available. Without adequate observations of pre-disaster organismal and environmental conditions, it is impossible to assess th...

Dive duration in air-breathing vertebrates is thought to be constrained by the volume of oxygen stored in the body and the rate at which it is consumed (i.e., “oxygen store/usage hypothesis”). The body mass-dependence of dive duration among endothermic vertebrates is largely supportive of this model, but previous analyses of ectothermic vertebrates...

Dive duration in air-breathing vertebrates is thought to be constrained by the volume of oxygen stored in the body and the rate at which it is consumed (i.e., “o xygen store/usage hypothesis” ). The body mass-dependence of dive duration among endothermic vertebrates is largely supportive of this model, but previous analyses of ectothermic vertebrat...

Dive duration in air-breathing vertebrates is thought to be constrained by the volume of oxygen stored in the body and the rate at which it is consumed (i.e., “o xygen store/usage hypothesis” ). The body mass-dependence of dive duration among endothermic vertebrates is largely supportive of this model, but previous analyses of ectothermic vertebrat...

Age at maturation data are integral to understanding dynamics of threatened and endangered sea turtle populations. However, full characterization of this parameter requires information regarding variability in growth rates and both size and age at maturation potentially resulting from diverse environmental and biological influences. To address the...

Stable isotope analysis is a useful tool to track animal movements in both terrestrial and marine environments. These intrinsic markers are assimilated through the diet and may exhibit spatial gradients as a result of biogeochemical processes at the base of the food web. In the marine environment, maps to predict the spatial distribution of stable...

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) analysis has been used to elucidate foraging and migration behaviours of endangered sea turtle populations. Isotopic analysis of tissue samples from nesting females can provide information about their foraging locations before reproduction. To determine whether loggerhead (Caretta caretta) eggs pro...

Diet items and habitat constitute some of the environmental resources that may be used differently by individuals within a population. Long-term fidelity by individuals to particular resources exemplifies individual specialization, a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly recognized across a wide range of species. Less is understood about the con...

Stage durations are integral to wildlife population models that can inform management, as they influence age at maturation and stage-specific survival rates. To refine oceanic stage duration estimates for western North Atlantic loggerhead sea turtles Caretta caretta, skeletochronological analysis was conducted on humeri collected in the Azores isla...

Differential foraging area use can affect population demographics of highly migratory fauna because of differential environmental changes and anthropogenic threats among those areas. Thus, identification of foraging areas is vital for the development of effective management strategies for endangered migratory species. In this study, we assigned 375...

Most studies on the foraging ecology of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) have focused on adult females and juveniles. Little is known about the foraging patterns of adult male loggerheads. We analyzed tissues for carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) from 29 adult male loggerheads tracked with satellite transmitters from one breed...

Denitrification and nitrogen-fixation processes in the marine environment have been intensively studied, particularly how these processes affect the nitrogen stable-isotope signature ( δ 15 N) of inorganic nutrients and organisms at the base of the food web. However, the assumption that these δ 15 N differences at the base of food webs are reflecte...

Small-scale fisheries in Peru constitute an important source of food and employment for coastal communities where fish is the single most important natural resource. Utilizing official statistics and extensive survey data from 30 fishing ports and by onboard observers operating from 11 ports, we review how these fisheries grew from 1995 to 2005, an...