Multiple maternal risk-management adaptations in the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) mitigate clutch failure caused by catastrophic storms and predators

Forty years of monitoring increasing sea turtle relative abundance in the Gulf of Mexico

Longitudinal data sets for population abundance are essential for studies of imperiled organisms with long life spans or migratory movements, such as marine turtles. Population status trends are crucial for conservation managers to assess recovery effectiveness. A direct assessment of population growth is the enumeration of nesting numbers and quantifying nesting attempts (successful nests/unsuccessful attempts) and emergence success (number of hatchlings leaving the nest) because of the substantial annual variations due to nest placement, predation, and storm activity. We documented over 133,000 sea turtle crawls for 50.9 km of Florida Gulf of Mexico coastline from 1982 to 2021 for a large loggerhead turtle nesting aggregation and a recovering remnant population of green sea turtles. Over time both species have emerged to nest significantly earlier in the year and green sea turtle nesting seasons have extended. Nest counts and hatchling production for both species have significantly increased, but the rate of emergence success of hatchlings leaving nests has not changed for loggerheads and has declined for green sea turtles. Sea level rise and coastal developments undoubtedly influence coastal habitats in the long-term, impacting nest site selection and potential recruitment from the loss of emerged hatchlings. However, the present indications for steady Gulf of Mexico recovery of loggerhead and green sea turtles counter findings of the Florida Atlantic coasts. This study indicates that effective conservation practices can be detected within time scales of 1-2 turtle generations.

Nest-site choice by loggerhead sea turtles as a risk-management adaptation to offset hatching failure by unpredictable storms and predators

Introduction

Along the coasts of Florida, United States, the nesting season of the loggerhead sea turtle, Caretta caretta, overlaps with the hurricane season. Nesting loggerhead females do not extend parental protection beyond depositing eggs in sandy, excavated nests in locations that provide a viable range of temperatures, moisture, and respiratory gas exchange. Thereafter, a female’s clutches are subjected to the uncertainties of desiccation, predation, flooding, or beach erosion.

Methods

Here, we used data from a 1996-2004 study of 94 tagged loggerhead females nesting on a small barrier island off the Gulf Coast of south Florida, United States. We tested the hypothesis that the distribution of nest sites by loggerhead females was a randomized response to unpredictable hatching failure.

Results

We show that nest site choice accounted for 19.2% of variation in hatching success whereas breeding year and breeding month accounted for the remaining 81.8% of variation in hatching success. We show that the emergence site along the beach-length axis, nest site choice along the beach-width axis, and distances between nest locations did not fit a uniform-random distribution or a normal distribution. Instead, we show that loggerhead females employed a “Goldilocks” distribution in which nest sites were “neither too clustered nor too dispersed.” Moreover, loggerhead females selected nest sites with limited overlap with nest sites from previous breeding seasons.

Discussion

We propose that nest site choice by this population of loggerhead females constitutes a significant maternal risk-management adaptation that deserves thoughtful consideration as we continue to assess the impacts of climate change on the future of loggerhead sea turtles.