Bárbara Canhoto

My main interests are understanding marine vertebrates’ ecology and contribute to the development of conservation efforts for endangered species. Hence, I am currently doing my Master thesis focusing on foraging behaviour of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) (Linnaeus, 1758). Although sea turtles exist for more than 100 million years and have found a way in evolution to adapt, all seven marine turtle species are currently threatened.

In my work, I’m identifying loggerheads’ foraging regions and investigating which oceanographic variables are significant affecting foraging choices. Some environmental variables, like sea surface temperature and chlorophyll a, have shown to be important not only for this species, but for many other marine vertebrates.

Although our knowledge on loggerhead turtles has been widely improved in the past few decades, many aspects of these long-lived animals’ ecology remain to be found. Moreover, current conservation measures mainly focus on nesting beaches, though loggerheads spend the majority of their lives at the sea, so I hope to contribute to increase our knowledge about their oceanic habitats.

Understanding marine vertebrates’ foraging habits and regions will help to define priorities in conservation measures to be applied, and will also be crucial to predict how climate changes will affect this and other species in the future.

My results will be used for comparison with some of the results of an ongoing larger study of PhD student Lara Sousa [Link ao perfil da Lara], related with many aspects of sunfish (Mola mola) ecology.