Do Local Environmental Factors and Lunar Cycle Influence Timing and Synchrony of Oviposition of a Turtle with Strict Nocturnal Nesting?
1
CIIMAR/CIMAR—Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, Av. General Norton de Matos s/n, 4450–208 Porto, Portugal
2
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua Campo Alegre s/n, 4169–007 Porto, Portugal
3
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
4
Department of Statistics, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diversity 2019, 11(5), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/d11050078
Received: 10 April 2019
/
Revised: 11 May 2019
/
Accepted: 13 May 2019
/
Published: 15 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Biology and Conservation of Turtles)
Timing of nesting affects fitness of oviparous animals living in seasonal environments, and females may cue on environmental factors for their nesting behavior, but these relationships are understudied in tropical turtles. Here, the timing and synchrony of egg-laying relative to environmental factors were examined in the South American freshwater turtle Podocnemis unifilis on 11 nesting beaches during three nesting seasons. Daily measurements included number of nests laid, rainfall, river level, air temperature, and the phase of the lunar cycle (full moon, last quarter, new moon and first quarter). Results confirmed that P. unifilis nested at night and revealed that females in our population nest in groups from 2 to 17 females at a time. Nesting was not correlated with rainfall, but a significant relationship was found with river level, such that nesting started at the onset of the dry season when river levels dropped and nesting grounds emerged. Importantly, we found that (1) nesting events concentrated on days with intermediate daily maximum air temperature (although maxima changed annually), and that (2) larger groups of females nested around full moon, suggesting the reliance on visual cues to initiate nesting activities (consistent with social facilitation behavior). Altogether, the timing of nesting in P. unifilis may be shaped by a combination of environmental factors, moon phase and social facilitation, where visual cues play an important role.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
Podocnemis unifilis; weather conditions; moon phase; reproductive timing; social facilitation
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Escalona, T.; Valenzuela, N.; Adams, D.C. Do Local Environmental Factors and Lunar Cycle Influence Timing and Synchrony of Oviposition of a Turtle with Strict Nocturnal Nesting? Diversity 2019, 11, 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11050078
AMA Style
Escalona T, Valenzuela N, Adams DC. Do Local Environmental Factors and Lunar Cycle Influence Timing and Synchrony of Oviposition of a Turtle with Strict Nocturnal Nesting? Diversity. 2019; 11(5):78. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11050078
Chicago/Turabian StyleEscalona, Tibisay, Nicole Valenzuela, and Dean C. Adams. 2019. "Do Local Environmental Factors and Lunar Cycle Influence Timing and Synchrony of Oviposition of a Turtle with Strict Nocturnal Nesting?" Diversity 11, no. 5: 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11050078
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
