Colonization and usage of an artificial urban wetland complex by freshwater turtles

PeerJ

article

Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux¹  Christina Davy²  Amy Lathrop³  Emma Followes⁴  Andrew Ramesbottom⁴  Andrea Chreston⁴  Suzanne E. MacDonald⁵ 

[1] Department of Biology, York University;Wildlife Research and Monitoring Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry;Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum;Toronto and Region Conservation Authority;Department of Psychology, York University

关键词: Snapping turtle;    Midland Painted turtle;    Artificial wetland;    Lake Ontario;    Sex ratio;    Common carp;    Restoration ecology;    Blanding’s turtle;    VHF;    Turtle road mortality;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.5423

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Conservation authorities invest heavily in the restoration and/or creation of wetlands to counteract the destruction of habitat caused by urbanization. Monitoring the colonization of these new wetlands is critical to an adaptive management process. We conducted a turtle mark-recapture survey in a 250 ha artificially created wetland complex in a large North American city (Toronto, Ontario). We found that two of Ontario’s eight native turtle species (Snapping turtle (SN), Chelydra serpentina, and Midland Painted (MP) turtle, Chrysemys picta marginata) were abundant and both were confirmed nesting. The Blanding’s turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) was present but not well established. Species richness and turtle density were not equally distributed throughout the wetland complex. We noted SN almost exclusively populated one water body, while other areas of the wetland had a varying representation of both species. The sex ratios of both SN and MP turtles were 1:1. We tracked the movement of Snapping and Blanding’s turtles and found that most turtles explored at least two water bodies in the park, that females explored more water bodies than males, and that 95% of turtles showed fidelity to individual overwintering wetlands. We performed DNA analysis of two Blanding’s turtles found in the created wetlands and could not assign these turtles to any known profiled populations. The genetic data suggest that the turtles probably belong to a remnant local population. We discuss the implications of our results for connectivity of artificial wetlands and the importance of the whole wetland complex to this turtle assemblage.

【 授权许可】

CC BY