Green Turtles Nesting at Their Northern Range Limit in the United States Represent a Distinct Subpopulation

Green turtle nesting has been recorded in North Carolina, since 1980, but how these nesting females fit into the broader regional context genetically has not been determined. Genetic tagging through microsatellite genotyping of clutches laid in northern South Carolina, North Carolina, and Delaware from 2010 through 2014 identified at least 52 individual nesting females. The mitochondrial control region haplotype frequencies of these individuals were significantly different from all northern Greater Caribbean subpopulations, including those in Florida, suggesting that these northern US females represent an incipient subpopulation that warrants distinct management unit status.