123 importance of interpreting the extrapolated number of nests with caution, especially concerning the islets and/or seasons for which data collection has remained scarce due to high monitoring constraints, we recognize the value of such predictive approach to investigate spatiotemporal patterns of the nesting activity distribution within the GLS area. Our results highlighted a strong heterogeneity in the intensity and the distribution of nesting activities, both between islets and across distinct nesting seasons. Some islets are systematically aggregating a high number of nests, contrasting with some others on which the predicted number of nests is consistently low over the seasons. This information suggests that some islets are consistently attractive to loggerhead females, while others are always repulsive. This selection may be related to the suitability of islets’ fixed characteristics, as pointed out in several sources (Marco et al. 2012, 2015, 2018; Raposo et al. 2024). However, if the level of nesting activities reported on some islets is stable over time, it was also shown to fluctuate significantly from one season to another among some other islets. These results tend to show that other aspects than fixed characteristics could drive nesting sites’ attractiveness, such as underlying fine scale philopatric behaviors as reported by Stiebens et al. (2013). To improve our understanding of the complex environmental and anthropogenic processes involved in nesting site selection by loggerhead females in a rookery displaying the singularity of presenting multiple and scattered available nesting beaches, we have investigated a set of 18 variables susceptible to influence nesting activities distribution within the GLS area, both between and within islets. At the inter-islet level, we have shown that high number of nests are found on large islets located in the proximity to reef-passes, far from the city of Nouméa or any other harbors, exhibiting a strong protection status and displaying low human disturbance levels with regards to the number of anchored boats, fire camps, and visitors on the islets. These results strongly suggest a negative influence of anthropogenic pressures upon the nesting site selection, as reported in available sources (Bjorndal and Jackson 2003; Allen 2007; Mazaris et al. 2009; Costa et al. 2023). At the intra-islet scale, we have investigated the influence of a set of the habitat’s characteristics over the number of nests per sector, as several geomorphological parameters been shown to affect sea turtle nesting site selection (Garmestani et al. 2000; Karavas et al. 2005; Margaritoulis 2005; Septiadi et al. 2018; Read et al. 2019a). Our results highlight that the influential variables are strongly correlated with the ability of nesting females to access the beach and to excavate a nest after having emerged from the sea. High numbers of nests have indeed been reported on beaches displaying narrow reef-flat and low levels of erosion scarp, beach-rock or woody debris and roots.
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