2023 article
Robust assessment of associations between weather and eastern wild turkey nest success
Boone, W. W., Moorman, C. E., Moscicki, D. J., Collier, B. A., Chamberlain, M. J., Terando, A. J., & Pacifici, K. (2023, November 15). JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT.
author keywords: climate change; Galliformes; Meleagris gallopavo; Phasianidae; precipitation; temperature; wet hen hypothesis
TL;DR:
Temperature and precipitation have been identified as factors that potentially influence eastern wild turkey reproduction, but robust analyses testing the relationship between weather parameters and turkey nest success are lacking, and projections of future nest success or daily nest survival suggest that nest success may increase as January precipitation increases and thatdaily nest survival may increaseAs temperature during incubation increases.
(via Semantic Scholar)
open access via onlinelibrary.wiley.com (publisher PDF)
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
13. Climate Action
(Web of Science; OpenAlex)
14. Life Below Water
(Web of Science)
15. Life on Land
(Web of Science)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: December 4, 2023
AbstractTemperature and precipitation have been identified as factors that potentially influence eastern wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) reproduction, but robust analyses testing the relationship between weather parameters and turkey nest success are lacking. Therefore, we assessed how weather influenced turkey daily nest survival using 8 years of data collected from 715 nests across the southeastern United States. We also conducted exploratory analyses investigating if weather conditions during or prior to nesting best predicted nest success. We then assessed the possible implications of climate change through 2041–2060 for future eastern wild turkey daily nest survival and nest success for variables determined significant in analyses. During incubation, positive anomalies of minimum daily temperature were associated with greater daily nest survival. Precipitation during nesting was not a good predictor of daily nest survival. Exploratory analyses unexpectedly indicated that weather conditions in January prior to incubation were more important to nest success than weather conditions during incubation. In January, negative anomalies of minimum temperature and greater average daily precipitation were associated with greater nest success. Projections of future nest success or daily nest survival based on these relationships with the predictive covariates, and informed by climate models, suggest that nest success may increase as January precipitation increases and that daily nest survival may increase as temperature during incubation increases. These positive associations could be offset by a negative association between nest success and the expected increases in January minimum average temperature. Additional research is needed to investigate causes of these relationships and assess the implications of climate change for eastern wild turkey poult survival.