DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cvdncjthb
title: Influences of temperature and time on habitat use patterns of a semi-aquatic turtle

description: Many ectothermic vertebrates have predictable seasonal activity and
 habitat use patterns, but variable patterns at fine temporal scales (e.g.,
 minutes to days) that are likely influenced by thermoregulatory demands on
 behavior. Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) are freshwater turtles known
 to use terrestrial environments during their active period. However,
 little research has been conducted to quantify the influence of
 environmental factors on diel habitat use patterns. We used
 fine-resolution global positioning system (GPS) tracking and temperature
 data to quantify wood turtle aquatic-terrestrial habitat-use patterns from
 May through August 2015 and 2016, focusing on the influence of temporal
 variables and environmental temperature. We found that temporal variables
 and open canopy air temperature had strong explanatory power for wood
 turtle aquatic-terrestrial habitat use patterns, but temperature was a
 stronger predictor. Terrestrial activity was positively associated with
 air temperature, resulting in a consistent pattern of daytime terrestrial
 and nighttime aquatic activity during the pre-nesting period. Male and
 female activity patterns diverged during the post-nesting activity period,
 with most males returning to the river at night and most females remaining
 terrestrial, influenced by females moving farther from the river. The
 results of our study provide valuable information to inform population
 survey design, habitat management planning, and potential responses to
 climate change for this unique species of conservation concern.
description: # Influences of temperature and time on habitat use patterns of a
 semi-aquatic turtle Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.cvdncjthb](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.cvdncjthb) ##
 Description of the data and file structure We used fine-resolution GPS
 tracking and temperature data to quantify wood turtle aquatic-terrestrial
 habitat-use patterns from May through August 2015 and 2016, focusing on
 the influence of temporal variables and environmental temperature ###
 Files and variables #### File: temp_smoothing.R **Description:** Code to
 identify and replace outliers in temperature data. #### File:
 wt_habitatuse_glmm.R **Description:** Code to create GLMMs to predict
 habitat use of wood turtles using temporal variables #### File:
 wt_temp_glmm.R **Description:** Code to create GLMMs to predict habitat
 use using temperature #### File: daily_temps.csv **Description:** Daily
 temperature values from a nearby weather station. ##### Variables * Date:
 Day of the year * Time: Time of day * Temp: Recorded temperature in
 Fahrenheit * Humidity: Relative humidity * Speed: Wind speed #### File:
 unsmoothed_temps.csv **Description:** Raw temporal and temperature data
 for each wood turtle observation ##### Variables * X: New record ID * id:
 Original record ID * yr: Year * month: Month of year * week: Week of year
 * day: Day of year * hr: Hour of day * Min: Minute of hour * TortID:
 Individual turtle ID * turtle_temp: Temperature recorded from the iButton
 on the turtle in Celcius * water_temp: Average temperature of stream in
 Celsius * shade_temp: Average temperature of shade environments in Celsius
 * sun_temp: Average temperature of sun environments in Celcius #### File:
 wt_smoothed_temps.csv **Description:** Temporal and smoothed temperature
 data for each wood turtle observation ##### Variables * id.num: ID number
 * yr: Year * m: Month of year * wk: Week of year * day: Day of year * hr:
 Hour of day * min: Minute of hour * dn: Binary variable indicating if its
 day time (1) or night time (0) * date.time: Specially formatted date and
 time * TortID: Individual turtle ID * PathID: ID for each complete GPS
 path. * GPS.fix: Indicates if there was a GPS fix * turtle.temp: Smoothed
 emperature recorded from the iButton on the turtle in Celcius *
 water.temp: Average temperature of stream in Celsius * shade.temp:
 Smoothed average temperature of shade environments in Celsius * sun.temp:
 Smoothed average temperature of sun environments in Celcius * location:
 Classified habitat class location. Either water (W) or land (L) * sex: Sex
 of wood turtle. Male (M) or female (F) * doy: Day of year * dist: Distance
 in meters to nearest water. NA values are land-classified values with no
 GPS-fix, so the data is unavailable. * local.temp: Temperature values from
 a nearby weather station recorded on the same time and day. ##
 Code/software The analysis was completed with Program R version 4.3.0.
 Loaded packages include the following: AICcmodavg (2.3-2), aplpack
 (1.3.5), car (3.1-2), dplyr (1.1.2), fmsb (0.7.5), influence.ME
 (0.9-9), lme4 (1.1-33), MuMIn (1.47.5), stats (4.3.0), and stringr
 (1.5.0). The temperature smoothing script was run first to clean up the
 temperatures. The other two scripts use the smoothed temperature data, and
 can be run independently of each other.