Swimming against the tide: resilience of a riverine turtle to recurrent extreme environmental events

Extreme environmental events (EEE) are likely to exert deleterious effects on populations. From 1996-2012 we studied the nesting dynamics of a riverine population of painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) that experienced seven years with significantly definable spring floods. We used capture-mark-recapture methods to estimate the relationships between >5-m and >6-m flood events and population parameters. Contrary to expectations, flooding was not associated with annual differences in survival, recruitment, or annual population growth rates of the adult female segment of the population. These findings suggest that female C. picta exhibit resiliency to key EEE, which are expected to increase in frequency under climate change.