Incubation environment and parental identity affect sea turtle development and hatchling phenotype

Tezak, Boris; Bentley, Blair; Arena, Mikaela; Mueller, Samantha; Snyder, Taylor; Sifuentes-Romero, Itzel

doi:10.1007/s00442-020-04643-7

Physiological ecology – original research
Published: 08 April 2020

Incubation environment and parental identity affect sea turtle development and hatchling phenotype

Boris Tezak ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2621-4272^1,2,
Blair Bentley^1,3,
Mikaela Arena¹,
Samantha Mueller¹,
Taylor Snyder¹ &
Itzel Sifuentes-Romero¹

Oecologia volume 192, pages 939–951 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

For reptiles, the incubation environment experienced by embryos during development plays a major role in many biological processes. The unprecedented rate of climate change makes it critical to understand the effects that the incubation environment has on developing embryos, particularly in imperiled species such as chelonians. Consequently, a number of studies have focused on the effects of different environmental conditions on several developmental processes and hatchling phenotypic traits. In addition to the incubation environment, it is also essential to understand how parental contributions can influence hatchling quality. This is the first study that investigates the effects of parental origin and incubation conditions on sea turtle embryonic development and hatchling phenotype in nests incubating in the field (rather than under controlled laboratory conditions). Here, we used the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) to investigate the effects of parental origin (clutch), incubation temperature, and the nest hydric environment on embryonic growth, incubation durations, hatching success, and hatchling phenotype. Our results show that nest moisture and temperature affect embryo mass towards the last third of development, with hatchling size positively correlated with nest moisture content, and maternal origin had a strong impact on hatching success and hatchling size regardless of the incubation conditions. The results from this experiment identify multiple factors that affect turtle embryonic development under field incubation conditions, a fundamental consideration when interpreting the potential impacts of climate change on reptilian development.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. J. Wyneken for her guidance and constructive advice. This work would not be possible without the help from the staff of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center during the egg-collection process, particularly S. Hirsch and Dr. J. Perrault. The study was improved by FAU’s Marine Turtle Lab members who assisted and provided intellectual discussion. A special thanks to Morgan Baer and Motion Watersports for making our lives infinitely easier during the field data collection portion of this project. All work was done in accordance with animal care and use protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Usage Committee at Florida Atlantic University (IACUC A13-04). Egg manipulations and sample collection were permitted through Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC Permits: MTP# 073A). The study was funded by grants awarded by the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation, as well as funds from the Nelligan Sea Turtle Fund.

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Affiliations

Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, FL, 33431-0991, USA
Boris Tezak, Blair Bentley, Mikaela Arena, Samantha Mueller, Taylor Snyder & Itzel Sifuentes-Romero
Department of Cell Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
Boris Tezak
School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia
Blair Bentley

Authors

Boris Tezak
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Blair Bentley
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Mikaela Arena
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Samantha Mueller
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Taylor Snyder
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Itzel Sifuentes-Romero
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Contributions

BT and ISR conceived the idea for this project and came up with the experimental design. BT, ISR, MA, TS,and SM collected the data, BB led data analysis, BT and BB led the writing of the manuscript. All authors contributed critically to the drafts and gave final approval for publication.

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Correspondence to Boris Tezak.

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Communicated by Mathew Samuel Crowther.

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Tezak, B., Bentley, B., Arena, M. et al. Incubation environment and parental identity affect sea turtle development and hatchling phenotype. Oecologia 192, 939–951 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04643-7

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Received: 03 September 2019
Accepted: 03 April 2020
Published: 08 April 2020
Issue Date: April 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04643-7

Keywords

Parental effects
Phenotypic plasticity
Nest moisture
Nest temperature
Caretta caretta