Winter severity and phenology of spring emergence from the nest in freshwater turtles

Abstract

Although many species of freshwater turtles emigrate to water soon after hatching, the offspring of some species overwinter on land and move to aquatic habitats in the following spring. Timing of emigration can affect the hatchlings' fitness, but the factors underlying phenology of nest emergence are incompletely understood. We tested the supposition that cold stress imposed during hibernation can influence the timing of nest emergence in three species of turtles in the central USA. In each year of the 6-year study, Chrysemys picta emerged in late March and early April and, on average, these hatchlings left their nests 2 weeks earlier than those of Graptemys geographica and 4 weeks earlier than those of Trachemys scripta. Emergence of conspecific hatchlings from different nests usually occurred over 3-7 weeks, but in some years lasted several additional weeks. Relatively few nests had siblings that emerged on the same day (i.e., synchronously); complete emergence of the typical sibling group required 1 to 2 weeks. In winter, subzero cold occurred with regularity in the nests of all species, though C. picta experienced the lowest temperatures owing to their shallower nests. However, for no species did emergence date or length of the emergence period correlate with winter minimum temperature and, at the level of the individual nest, neither did emergence synchrony or duration. Despite encountering lower temperatures, hatchlings of C. picta emigrated from their nests before those of sympatric species, suggesting that the fitness benefits of early emergence may lead to the improvement of cold-hardiness adaptations in northern populations of turtles.