Downloaded from http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on July 31, 2017 The geomagnetic environment in which sea turtle eggs incubate affects subsequent magnetic navigation behaviour of hatchlings rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Matthew J. Fuxjager†, Kyla R. Davidoff, Lisa A. Mangiamele and Kenneth J. Lohmann Research Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA Cite this article: Fuxjager MJ, Davidoff KR, Loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings (Caretta caretta) use regional magnetic fields Mangiamele LA, Lohmann KJ. 2014 The as open-ocean navigational markers during trans-oceanic migrations. Little is known, however, about the ontogeny of this behaviour. As a first step geomagnetic environment in which sea turtle towards investigating whether the magnetic environment in which hatchl- eggs incubate affects subsequent magnetic ings develop affects subsequent magnetic orientation behaviour, eggs navigation behaviour of hatchlings. deposited by nesting female loggerheads were permitted to develop in situ Proc. R. Soc. B 281: 20141218. either in the natural ambient magnetic field or in a magnetic field distorted http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1218 by magnets placed around the nest. In orientation experiments, hatchlings that developed in the normal ambient field oriented approximately south when exposed to a field that exists near the northern coast of Portugal, a direction consistent with their migratory route in the northeastern Atlantic. Received: 19 May 2014 By contrast, hatchlings that developed in a distorted magnetic field had orientation indistinguishable from random when tested in the same north Accepted: 10 July 2014 Portugal field. No differences existed between the two groups in orientation assays involving responses to orbital movements of waves or sea-finding, neither of which involves magnetic field perception. These findings, to our knowledge, demonstrate for the first time that the magnetic environment Subject Areas: present during early development can influence the magnetic orientation behaviour, physiology behaviour of a neonatal migratory animal. Keywords: magnetic field, magnetic orientation and 1. Introduction navigation, magnetoreception, ontogeny, Diverse animals detect the Earth’s magnetic field and exploit it as a source of sea turtles, Caretta caretta information while migrating, homing or moving through their habitat [1,2]. Animals can derive at least two different types of information from the geo- magnetic field. The first is directional or compass information, which enables Author for correspondence: animals to maintain courses in a particular direction such as north or south [1,3]. In addition, at least a few animals derive positional or map informa- Matthew J. Fuxjager tion from the geomagnetic field, which enables them to determine where e-mail: [email protected] they are relative to a goal or to change direction when they reach a particular geographical area along a migratory route [4–6]. Loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, undergo one of the longest and most spectacular marine migrations. Hatchling loggerheads that emerge on the east coast of Florida, USA, enter the sea and immediately embark on a trans-oceanic migration [7]. Turtles initially swim eastward to the Gulf Stream current, where many become entrained in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, the circular cur- rent system that flows around the Sargasso Sea [8,9]. Many loggerheads migrate † Present address: Department of Biology, across the Atlantic and back before eventually returning to the North American Wake Forest University, PO Box 7325, Reynolda coast [9,10]. Station, Winston-Salem, NC 27109, USA. The magnetic sense of loggerhead turtles has been studied extensively for more than two decades. Young loggerheads in the open sea are guided at least partly by a ‘magnetic map’, in which regional magnetic fields function as navigational markers and elicit changes in swimming direction at crucial locations along the migratory pathway [11,12]. Responses to regional magnetic & 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Downloaded from http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on July 31, 2017 fields appear to be inherited, inasmuch as they are present in surface of sand 2 turtles that have never before been in the ocean [13,14]. More- rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org over, strong selective pressure probably acts to ensure that, as the geomagnetic field gradually changes over time, the responses of hatchlings change accordingly [13,15]. PVC eggs Although loggerhead hatchlings clearly emerge from their frame nests with a fully functional magnetic sense, little is known about the ontogeny of their magnetic navigation behaviour. For example, the responses to regional magnetic fields might be genetically encoded and unaffected by environmental vari- ables such as the ambient magnetic field around the nest. Alternatively, the field that exists during development and/ Proc. R. Soc. B or after hatching might influence subsequent magnetic naviga- magnets or aluminium bars tion behaviour. These questions are of interest both with regard to the ontogeny of behaviour and from a conservation perspec- Figure 1. Diagram of a clutch of turtle eggs surrounded by a buried PVC pipe tive, given that a common conservation practice is to surround frame. Each frame had either magnets or aluminium bars attached to it. The 281 nests of sea turtles with wire mesh cages that protect eggs from shaded area surrounding and above the eggs indicates the approximate area predators but distort the ambient magnetic field [16]. typically excavated by a nesting turtle and filled in with sand after egg : 20141218 As a first step towards investigating these issues, we altered deposition. See text for details. the magnetic field around loggerhead turtle eggs with magnets and then tested whether turtles raised under these conditions clutch without contacting the egg cavity itself (figure 1). Magnets respondedtoaregionalmagneticfieldinthesamewayascon- and aluminium bars were attached to opposite sides of the PVC trol hatchlings raised in the normal geomagnetic field. Results frame, but positioned so that they faced the inside of the frame. indicated that turtles raised in the unnatural field failed to The magnets were rectangular neodymium rare earth magnets respond normally to the regional field. Moreover, effects of (N40; National Imports, Falls Church, VA, USA) that measured this treatment appeared to be limited to orientation behaviour 0.64 Â 1.27 Â 10.16 cm. Aluminium bars had identical dimen- involving magnetoreception, because incubation in the altered sions. Magnets were arranged so that the north pole of one field had no effect on orientation to wave motion or on sea- magnet and the south pole of the second magnet faced inward finding behaviour mediated by visual cues. These findings, to towards each other. This configuration created an unnatural magnetic field in which the field intensity varied greatly across our knowledge, demonstrate for the first time that the magnetic the clutch. Measurements with a Model 912 digital gaussmeter environment present during early development can influence (Magnetic Instrumentation, Inc., Indianapolis, IN, USA) indi- subsequent magnetic orientation behaviour of neonates. cated that field intensity ranged from approximately 36–310 mT within the space occupied by eggs, with the average field inten- sity in the centre of the frame being about 80 mT. Magnetic 2. Material and methods inclination angle also presumably varied greatly, but could not be measured accurately because the gaussmeter probe could (a) Locating turtle nests not be positioned accurately relative to gravity. The natural field intensity at the study site was 46.7 mT and the inclination The study was conducted within a 5 km stretch of beach in angle was 57.88 (measurements of the natural field were made Melbourne Beach, Florida, USA, during the spring and summer with an Applied Physics Systems tri-axial fluxgate magnetometer of 2005. During May and June, we walked along the beach each model 520A). morning to locate loggerhead nests that had been deposited by Both aluminium bars and magnets were thoroughly wrapped in nesting female turtles the night before. Wooden stakes placed waterproof plastic bags so that they did not contact the sand. To in the vegetation near the base of the closest dunes were used bury a frame around a nest, a trench was dug around each egg to mark the location of each nest. Stakes were typically located chamber using gardening trowels; care was taken to avoid contact- about 2–15 m from each clutch. ing any eggs during this process. Frames were placed in the trench so that they were 23 cm below the top of the egg chamber, which (b) Experimental design and clutch manipulations corresponds to the approximate depth of the centre of the egg chamber in loggerhead nests (Ray Carthy 2005, personal communi- Each nest was randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups. cation). We then filled the trench with the same moist sand that had For the first group, we changed the magnetic environment in which been dug out. When buried, the sides of the frame that held alu- the eggs developed by placing around each clutch a square PVC minium bars or magnets were on the east and west sides of the pipe frame with magnets attached. Magnets were used to alter clutch, and aligned so that the long axis of the bars or magnets the field instead of electrically powered coil systems because of were parallel with the north–south axis of the local ambient field. the lack of electricity on the beach and because coil systems could not be installed around nests without moving the eggs. For the second group, eggs were surrounded by a PVC pipe frame of iden- tical dimensions, but with non-magnetic aluminium bars attached (c) Collection of hatchlings instead of magnets; thus, eggs in this treatment were exposed to the During morning surveys, we recorded the date that each nest was disturbance of having a PVC pipe frame placed around the clutch, deposited on the beach. To predict the date when hatchlings would but the magnetic environment was not disrupted.