Meeting Abstract
In temperate regions, the emergence of hatchling turtles from their nests varies among species and generally follows one of two patterns: fall emergence or delayed spring emergence. Diamond-backed Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) in temperate latitudes follow a facultative strategy in which one population will have both fall and spring emergence. On average, 55% of nests on the Paul S. Sarbanes Ecosystem Restoration Project at Poplar Island, MD display fall emergence, 25% overwinter and emerge the following spring, with the remaining 20% of nests failing to produce hatchlings. Survivorship was calculated for fall and spring emergent terrapins using recapture data since 2008. Though delayed spring emergence is less common in this population, the best fit model indicated that there is an 8% higher chance of survival for spring emergent hatchlings in the first two years of life (during which juvenile terrapins are semi-terrestrial in contrast to the aquatic adults). To investigate this survivorship difference on Poplar Island, fall and spring emergent hatchlings from the 2014 nesting season were collected to examine individual hatchling performance between these two emergent strategies. Righting behavior, as well as aquatic and terrestrial burst speed and endurance were used as fitness proxies that may correlate with the calculated survivorship differences. Trends in the gathered data indicate that spring emergent hatchlings may perform better than fall emergent hatchlings, which could increase survivorship due to factors such as aiding in foraging or predation avoidance. This comparison between emergent season performance may provide insight as to why a less common strategy has greater survivorship.
