Everyone Loves Sea Turtles! Exploring NC Coastline Data With JMP Mandy Chambers, Development Tester JMP, SAS

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1 Everyone Loves Sea Turtles! Exploring NC Coastline Data With JMP Mandy Chambers, Development Tester JMP, SAS Abstract Sea turtles are very active on the NC Coast. There are over 330 miles of beach and 25 active sea turtle tracking programs. The NC Wildlife Commission monitors sea turtle nesting and collects data with assistance from a large number of volunteers. This data is crucial in monitoring populations, formulating protective regulations, making management decisions, and maximizing reproduction. I became interested in Oak Island s Sea Turtle Program last year and decided it would be interesting to track nesting from 2010-present using JMP. I used JMP s File Internet Open command to gather the NC data points from seaturtle.org, and also received nesting data from the North Carolina Wildlife Commission for Oak Island Beach. I used JSL to stack some of the data in various tables and column formulas to calculate sections and miles of beach for Oak Island. JMP helped visualize and analyze this data. Objectives Use File Internet Open option in JMP with Seaturtle.org data Import NC Wildlife Commission nesting data with JMP using Excel import options Combine, concatenate, recode, and stack data, then use JMP Graph Builder and other platforms to explore nesting data and nesting trends Raw Data Files Imported Excel files from NC Wildlife Commission for sea turtle nests from Oak Island JMP File Internet Open to get data tables for all NC Coast programs from (collected some 2009 and 2015 as needed for comparison) using Seaturtle.org Used stack, summary, concatenate, and combine commands, along with JMP Graph Builder in JMP 12.2 to do the majority of the data manipulation and presentation Used JMP formulas to calculate distances on Oak Island, dividing the island into 8 sections. Google Maps was used to compare a similar map to a map made with JMP Graph Builder, which used a street map as reference Sea Turtle Information Our ecosystem needs sea turtles to feed on the grass on the ocean floor. They are one of the few creatures that do this which helps sustain the grass s growth. It takes decades for sea turtles to reach sexual maturity. A female turtle lays 1 to 8 nests per season. She lays between 50 to 350 eggs in a nest. She digs the hole for the eggs, lays eggs, then covers them back up the process takes 30 to 60 minutes. Most of the time it occurs at night. Turtle gender depends on the sand temperature while eggs are incubating. Lighter sands maintain higher temps which decrease incubation time which in turn results in more female hatchlings. Turtle species is determined by measuring the crawl width in the sand. Example of a false crawl Click here for Sea Turtle Definitions Data Tables Click any picture to zoom in

2 Everyone Loves Sea Turtles! Exploring NC Coastline Data With JMP Mandy Chambers, Development Tester JMP, SAS NC Beach Nesting Data 2015 NC Beach Data Sea turtle nesting data for years 2010 to (NOTE: 2015 is not complete as hatching season is currently in progress.) 2015 Nesting Information Turtle Activity What are the trends in NC for emerging success, hatching success, nesting success, relocation success? What are nesting months for all beaches? Why may there have been a drop in nesting in 2014? Rainfall possible What nesting trends are occurring for 2015? Tabulate Turtle Species Using Expression Columns Bubble Plot of Nests Oneway Click any picture to zoom in

3 Everyone Loves Sea Turtles! Exploring NC Coastline Data With JMP Mandy Chambers, Development Tester JMP, SAS Oak Island Sea Turtle Data Observations Oak Island distance map to show density Used Google Maps to look at Oak Island and create 8 sections based on different geographic markers Created formula columns to calculate distance of the 8 sections in miles, and in nest density Used JMP Graph Builder and a street map to show density of nests on Oak Island for Map showing density of beach with nests versus false crawls It appears the sea turtle project and turtle activity are growing in general. It is hard to know if research is a help or a hindrance with the nesting and hatching process. Using JMP to analyze the data was a fun and creative way to look at the entire process closer as well as being a positive learning tool for something that is more scientific in nature. Moving turtle script below is for all NC Beaches References & Acknowledgements Click any picture to zoom in North Carolina Wildlife Commission Matt Godfrey, Sea Turtle Project 3 Oak Island, NC Sea Turtle Project and Volunteers 4 Dan Schikore add-in SVG Bubble Shape Editor

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5 Sea Turtle Definitions Emergence Success - % of turtles that emerged from the nest and made it to the water False Crawls when a turtle comes out of the water to lay eggs, but is distracted and returns to the ocean without stopping to nest Hatch Success - % of turtles that hatched from their eggs (revealed at the nest) Hatchling new baby turtle In Situ when nests are left where they are laid Nest Success number of nests that hatched with at least a 10% emergence divided by the total number of nests laid for the state Program Beach Success total nests laid in the state divided by all the crawling activity (nests and false crawls) (NOTE: for biological systems, it s not expected to have rates or percentages that continually increase on an annual basis) Relocation when nests are moved to either a better place to be safe, or to a hatchery

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7 2015 Nesting Activity for NC Beaches Nests and False Crawls seem directly correlated per Beach Nesting peaks around weeks 24 and 25 of the year Largest egg loss seems to be Research and Tide/Storm related

8 NC Beach Nesting Totals for 2015 NOTE: Data prior to August 18, 2015

9 Turtle Nests in NC by Species 2015 did not have a Leatherback Turtle nest in NC

10 Nesting / Hatching Photos

11 Nesting / Hatching Photos

12 Turtle Activity for NC Beaches What may have caused a drop in nesting for 2014? Nesting Success is still on-going for the 2015 season

13 All Nesting Activity for NC Beaches Bubble sizes are larger where nesting is greater Showing 2013, 2014, 2015 screen shots

14 Nesting Emergence % all NC Beaches Compare Means -> Student s t, notice the circles indicating the mean emergence % is not significantly different, except for 2011 which is significantly lower than the rest.

15 Success Percentages of Overall Project Monthly Nesting Trends for NC Beaches Hatch Success and Nest Success seem directly correlated Relocation Success does not seem significant 2015 data is not complete yet July 2013 nesting was higher for all NC Beaches 2014 was significantly lower possibly due to rain/weather

16 Rainfall in Inches per Month July rainfall in 2014 was 12 inches due to Hurricane Arthur Nesting season ends in August normally so September rainfall does not appear to be a factor

17 Oak Island Nest Density Areas Google Map of Oak Island, NC

18 Oak Island Nest Density, Hatch Success, Hatch Duration

19 Oak Island Nests and False Crawls Excavating turtles from nest

20 Incubation Period of Nesting - Oak Island Incubation period is longer in October due to cooler temperature of sand

21 Oak Island Hatch Success for In Situ and Relocated Nests Relocated nests show slightly higher success rate than nests that remained In Situ Hatch Success at Oak Island for all Nesting (as of August 18, 2015)

22 Moving Turtle Script , NC Beaches - SVG Add-in