Green turtle Chelonia mydas mixed stocks in the western South Atlantic, as revealed by mtDNA haplotypes and drifter trajectories

Genetic structure and natal origins of green turtle mixed stocks in southern Brazil were assessed based on analyses of mtDNA control region sequences from the Arvoredo Island (n = 115) and Cassino Beach (n = 101) feeding areas. These were compared to other mixed aggregations to examine structuring, and to Atlantic Ocean nesting colonies to evaluate natal origins through Bayesian mixed stock analysis (MSA). In order to develop novel priors, surface drifter trajectories in the Atlantic were analyzed and combined with rookery data, and we used Kulback-Leibler information measures in order to compare the difference of information among the 4 proposed priors. Each study area presented 12 haplotypes, 10 of which were shared at similar frequencies. Haplotypes CM-A8 and CM-A5…