Microhabitat Association of Blanding's Turtles in Natural and Constructed Wetlands in Southeastern New York

Abstract

We studied Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) microhabitat in natural wetlands and wetlands constructed for the turtles in Dutchess County, New York, USA. Investigation of these topics can provide information on ways to increase the extent of Blanding's turtle habitat, improve its quality, and assure that conservation or restoration managers do not overlook key habitat characteristics. Microhabitat was determined by radiotracking individuals to their exact locations and recording habitat variables. Blanding's turtles were associated with shallow water depths (x̄ = 30 cm), muck substrates, and areas of abundant vegetation (total cover xM = 87%). Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)had the greatest mean total cover (29%). In the constructed wetlands, Blanding's turtles were associated with significantly less cover and warmer water than in the natural wetlands. Blanding's turtles appeared to be using the constructed wetlands to bask and forage in the spring and early summer but moved to deeper wetlands in late summer when the constructed wetlands dried up or became too warm. For Blanding's turtles, new habitat should contain abundant emergent vegetation (including buttonbush in Dutchess County and other areas where the turtles are known to use buttonbush swamps), basking areas, muck, floating plant material, and submerged aquatic vegetation. Blanding's turtle's use of constructed wetlands highlights the value of a complex of connected wetland habitats in providing for the varied needs of the turtle.

Habitat Selection by the Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) on a Protected Island in Georgian Bay, Lake Huron

“…Overall, selection of bog habitat by males and females during the pre-nesting season was similar to that of Blanding's turtles studied in Maine (Beaudry et al 2009), Nova Scotia (Newton and Herman 2009), and a few turtles in Illinois (Rowe and Moll 1991; Table 4). Contrary to our results, however, Blanding's turtles in New York were found to be associated with wetlands with buttonbush cover (Hartwig and Kiviat 2007), whereas Blanding's turtles in Wisconsin were found to prefer ponds (Ross and Anderson 1990; Table 4). These variations in Blanding's turtle habitat selections across their geographic range highlight the importance of site-specific habitat studies, because results may not be transferable among locations.…”

“…This switch in usage may be attributable to several factors: 1) presence of females, 2) competition from other species of turtles, or 3) use of shallow water in the late summer. Selection of the shallower bog in this study differs from that in previous studies in Maine and the St. Lawrence islands (Beaudry et al 2009;Millar and Blouin-Demers 2011) but is consistent with the preference for shallow, warm water by turtles in New York (Hartwig and Kiviat 2007). As expected, females remained in their resident wetland during the pre-nesting season, presumably to conserve energy in preparation for the nesting season (Congdon 1989;Millar and Blouin-Demers 2011).…”

“…We cannot simply extrapolate information from previous studies to the Georgian Bay region because habitat selection differs among populations of Blanding's turtles in geographically distinct areas partly attributable to the variation in available habitat types. For example, a study in Maine, identified a population of Blanding's turtles that used wetlands within deciduous forest and with a high cover of sphagnum moss (Beaudry et al 2009), whereas turtles in a study in New York used wetlands with shallow water depths and dense vegetation (Hartwig and Kiviat 2007). Millar and Blouin-Demers (2011) studied habitat use by Blanding's turtles in the St. Lawrence islands, which are within the Great Lakes basin, but extrapolating results to the Georgian Bay islands may be inappropriate because of different topography and, thus, a difference in available habitat types that originates from disparate bedrock type (Perera et al 2000).…”

Effects of Habitat Alterations on Bog Turtles (Glyptemys muhlenbergii): A Comparison of Two Populations

“…Habitat management is therefore being recommended increasingly as one means of restoring populations (Congdon et al, 1993;Litzgus and Mousseau, 2004;Hartwig and Kiviat, 2007). However, difficulties in measuring population responses in long-lived species have resulted in few investigations of population-level response of reptiles to habitat management (Pfister, 1998;Fordham et al, 2007).…”

Blanding’s Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) Potential Habitat Mapping Using Aerial Orthophotographic Imagery and Object Based Classification

“…Wetlands were visually identified, delineated in a GIS and categorized into priority levels for field survey based on the: (1) presence of more than approximately 100 m² of open water as, below this threshold, interpretation of wetlands from the orthophotos was not believed to be reliable due to confusion with tree shadows, and literature has shown Blanding's wetland habitat to be typically larger than this (e.g., [12]); (2) presence of within wetland vegetation with moderate cover (e.g., 25-75%) being higher priority than no vegetation or large per cent cover [11,14]; (3) presence of logs (at least 1-2 in small wetlands, more in larger wetlands) ( [6,50,51]); and (4) need to represent the variety of wetland conditions and types in the study area for collection of sample training data for classification.…”