Abstract
Knowledge of the determinants of population size is essential for effective conservation and management of endangered species. Population growth is dependent on offspring survival. Initial survival of sea turtle offspring is subject to the incubation environment, where higher incubation temperatures negatively affect their vigour and morphology. Thus, at some rookeries with drastic fluctuations in sand temperature, hatchling characteristics have been demonstrated to exhibit seasonal and annual variation. We examined whether body size and emergence success of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) hatchlings decline seasonally at a temperate rookery (Yakushima Island, Japan) in correlation with the seasonal rise in air temperature. Clutches collected during two survey periods within the same nesting season were incubated on the same beach hatchery over two years. The body size of adult females that laid experimental clutches was not significantly different between the survey periods. Corresponding to seasonally rising air temperatures, incubation duration for clutches of the first survey period was significantly longer than that of the second. However, both hatchling size and emergence success did not decrease seasonally, and there were no significant negative correlations between the mean air temperature or the estimated mean sand temperature during incubation and the hatchling characteristics. These may be due to a combination of coarse white sand and high rainfall on the experimental beach, which might have lowered sand and nest temperatures and elevated sand moisture. Seasonal stability in hatchling characteristics may be one of the reasons Yakushima Island is the largest rookery for loggerhead turtles in the North Pacific.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Kazushi Iwakawa, Ayame Uemura, and the staff (Kazuyoshi Omuta, Noriko Omuta, Megumi Uchida, Shuichi Nishida, Yasuko Yoshimura, Miki Shiba, Hiromi Shiba, and others) of the Yakushima Sea Turtle Research Group for field assistance and logistical support. The municipality of Kagoshima Prefecture provided rainfall data for the study site. Jacques-Olivier Laloë and two anonymous reviewers provided constructive criticism. We dedicate this paper to the late Toshiro Hidaka, who greatly contributed to sea turtle research and conservation on Yakushima Island.
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This work was supported by the Yakushima Environmental and Cultural Foundation (grant numbers 45 and 24) to H.H.
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HH and SW conceived and designed this study. HH conducted field surveys and analyzed the data to write the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.
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Field sampling was conducted under licences issued by the municipalities of Kagoshima Prefecture (Nos. 1–13 and 1–20) and Yakushima Town (Nos. 90 and 123) and in accordance with Animal Care Authorisation (No. P20-8) of The University of Tokyo.
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Hatase, H., Watanabe, S. Warmer air temperatures do not negatively affect body size and emergence success of loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) hatchlings at Yakushima Island, Japan, the largest rookery in the North Pacific. Mar Biol 169, 102 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04093-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-022-04093-0