Maternal diet influences fecundity in a freshwater turtle undergoing population decline

Food availability determines the amount of energy animals can acquire and allocate to reproduction and other necessary functions. Female animals that are food-limited thus experience reduced energy available for reproduction. When this occurs, females may reduce frequency of reproductive events or the number or size of offspring per reproductive bout. We assessed how maternal diet affects reproductive output in adult female Murray River short-necked turtles, Emydura macquarii, from four wetlands in Victoria. We previously found that turtle diets differ in the composition of plants and animals between our study wetlands. In this study, we tested whether differences in turtle diet composition (i.e plants and animals) at these wetlands were associated with differences in clutch mass, individual egg mass, bulk egg composition, and hatching success. We found total clutch mass increased with maternal body size at each site. At sites where filamentous green algae were scarce and E. macquarii w..., Please see the published manuscript associated with this data, , # Maternal diet influences fecundity in a freshwater turtle undergoing population decline

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.05qfttfbg](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.05qfttfbg)

The attached Excel spreadsheet includes all data related to the associated manuscript. Briefly, gravid female turtles were captured in the wild, induced to lay their eggs with oxytocin, and eggs were collected for either direct analysis or incubation. Eggs (and maternal claw samples) were analysed for isotopic content, and eggs were analysed for total protein, water, fat, and energy content. The incubated eggs were incubated at either 26 or 30 C (clutches split approximately 50-50), and hatching success was measured.

## Description of the data and file structure

In the spreadsheet, 

Workbook \"Egg Collection Data\" provides summary data of all eggs collected, including laying date and time, mass, dimensions, and fate

\"Hatching Dates\" indicates the hatching dates for those incubated eggs which hatched

\"Egg and Mo...