Picta outta those traps: Looking at painted turtle ( Chrysemys picta ) populations along an urban to rural gradient
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Keyword
painted turtlesurban
rural
pond
water quality
pond size
basking sites
pH
conductivity
EREN
TurtlePop 2.0
Point au Roche State Park
golf course
Date Published
2024-12-17
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Urbanization can affect wildlife populations in the form of road mortality, habitat degradation, and spatio-temporal behavioral shifts. Understanding how wildlife populations respond to these effects can help us manage and protect them. We studied painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) to determine how urbanization impacts their population structure, including abundance, age structure, and sex ratio. This project is in collaboration with the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) and guided by TurtlePop 2.0. We hypothesized that painted turtles would be more abundant in a rural setting over an urban setting due to better habitat quality. We predicted that there would be more female turtles in urban areas due to warmer temperatures driven by an urban environment and that there would be more juvenile turtles in the rural site due to less mesopredators. To evaluate urbanization, we monitored turtles along a gradient from rural at Deep Bay Pond located in Point Au Roche State Park to urban at the Barracks golf course pond complex in the City of Plattsburgh, NY. Turtles were captured using 10 baited crab hoop traps at each site over a 3-day capture session, visiting urban site 5 times and the rural site 4 times each in fall 2024. Captured turtles were measured in size, estimated in age and sex, notched with a unique three-letter code for mark recapture estimates, and released. We calculated and compared turtle abundance between sites and over time. In addition, we monitored water quality (e.g., pH, conductivity, pond and ambient temperatures), as well as pond size and basking site availability. The urban site had three more females than the rural site, as predicted and both sites had a higher proportion of males to females. Contrary to our prediction, the urban site had more juveniles than the rural site, with only one more juvenile at that site. Both sites had the same number of adults, but the urban site had more females to males with 8 females and 18 males. The rural site had 5 females and 21 males. The urban site had more females which supported our hypothesis, however, it also had one more juvenile than the rural site, refuting our hypothesis. All ponds had a slightly basic pH around 8. Temperature was slightly colder at the rural site, likely due to the larger size and connection to Lake Champlain. Conductivity was above 200 S/m in the rural site and urban ponds 5 and 6 while ponds 1, 2, and 4 were around 160 S/m. Basking sites did not seem to impact turtle abundance. The Barracks golf course may want to monitor any use of herbicides or fertilizers near the ponds while Point au Roche State Park may want to limit salting the road by the pond to reduce pollutants in the pond. Both urban and rural ponds are important habitats for painted turtles and other wildlife. Monitoring age and sex structure is important to assure that the population can successfully recruit and grow. Our study can be used to inform wetland management by highlighting the unique challenges that freshwater turtles face in both urban and rural settings.The following license files are associated with this item:
- Creative Commons
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International