Research Interests: I currently work in the area of bioenergetics, in
the field of study now being coined as conservation physiology.
My goals are to understand the bioenergetics (energy use/allocation)
of sea turtles and how resource availability, abundance and human
perturbations such as climate change affect their reproductive output and
growth. All of this in the context of population decline. My research is
based on the fundamental principal that growth rate and metabolic rate are
the 2 most important factors for understanding a species and for managing a
species on the brink of extinction. Recently I have been looking at energy partitioning in
leatherbacks, determining total daily metabolism as well as total energy to
build a sexually mature female. How much energy during the life of a
leatherback goes to: growth, osmoregulation, digestion, locomotion,
thermoregulation and other processes. I then look at how resource
availability and abundance affects partitioning and thus allocation of
energy to somatic growth and reproductive growth. Somatic growth gets you
to sexually mature size and is then replaced by reproductive growth at
maturity. Anything that pulls resources away from Somatic and Reproductive
growth will in turn slow down time to sexual maturity and increase
remigration intervals and thus decrease Reproductive Output, ultimately
leading to population decline. T. Todd Jones Department of Zoology University of British Columbia 6270 University Blvd. Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z4 Phone: (604) 822-5043 Fax: (604) 822-8121 Email: tjones@zoology.ubc.ca
These data give detailed information about demographics, time turtles spend
at certain age classes and habitats.
30 kg (22-month) leatherback
at UBC Animal Care Center.
48 kg black turtle in Bahia
de los Angeles, Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Link to Biology 363 lecture – ‘Leatherback Biology and Conservation’
Link to UBC Reports – ‘Harnessing Turtle Power’
Selected publications:
Wallace, B. P. and T. T. Jones. 2008. What makes marine turtles go: A review of
metabolic rates and their consequences. Journal
of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 356: 8-24. PDF
Jones,
T. T., R. D. Reina,
C.-A. Darveau and P. L. Lutz. 2007. Ontogeny of Energetics in Leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea and Olive Ridley, Lepidochelys olivacea Sea Turtle
Hatchlings. Comparative Biochemistry and
Physiology: Part A 147(2007):313-322. PDF
Seminoff, J.A., T.T. Jones, T. Eguchi, D. R. Jones and P.H. Dutton. 2006. Stable
isotope discrimination (δ13C and δ15N) between
soft tissues of green sea turtles Chelonia
mydas and their diet. Marine Ecology
Progress Series 308:271-278. PDF
Salmon, M., T. T. Jones, and K. W. Horch. 2004. Ontogeny of diving and feeding
behavior in juvenile sea turtles: a
comparative study of green turtles (Chelonia
mydas L) and leatherbacks (Dermochelys
coriacea L) in the
Reina, R. D., T. T. Jones, and J. R.
Spotila. 2002. Salt and water regulation by the leatherback sea turtle Dermochelys
coriacea. J. Exp. Biol. 205,
1853–1860. PDF
Jones, T. T., M. Salmon, J. Wyneken, and C.
Johnson. 2000. Rearing Leatherback Hatchlings: Protocols, Growth and Survival. Marine Turtle Newsletter No. 90, 3-6. PDF
Selected websites:
All about sea turtles – www.seaturtle.org
What seafood is sustainable to eat - www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp
Leatherbacks in
All about leatherbacks – www.leatherback.org
Gets young people involved in ocean conservation – www.oceanrevolution.org