For reptiles, the incubation environment experienced by embryos during development plays a major role in many biological processes. The unprecedented rate of climate change makes it critical to understand the effects that the incubation environment has on developing embryos, particularly in imperiled species such as chelonians. Consequently, a number of studies have focused on the effects of different environmental conditions on several developmental processes and hatchling phenotypic traits. In addition to the incubation environment, it is also essential to understand how parental contributions can influence hatchling quality. This is the first study that investigates the effects of parental origin and incubation conditions on sea turtle embryonic development and hatchling phenotype in nests incubating in the field (rather than under controlled laboratory conditions). Here, we used the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) to investigate the effects of parental origin (clutch), incubation temperature, and the nest hydric environment on embryonic growth, incubation durations, hatching success, and hatchling phenotype. Our results show that nest moisture and temperature affect embryo mass towards the last third of development, with hatchling size positively correlated with nest moisture content, and maternal origin had a strong impact on hatching success and hatchling size regardless of the incubation conditions. The results from this experiment identify multiple factors that affect turtle embryonic development under field incubation conditions, a fundamental consideration when interpreting the potential impacts of climate change on reptilian development.

中文翻译：

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孵化环境和父母身份会影响海龟的发育和孵化表型。

对于爬行动物，胚胎在发育过程中经历的孵化环境在许多生物过程中起着重要作用。前所未有的气候变化速度使得了解孵化环境对发育中的胚胎的影响至关重要，尤其是在诸如科隆人等濒危物种中。因此，许多研究集中于不同环境条件对几种发育过程和孵化表型性状的影响。除了孵化环境外，了解父母的贡献如何影响孵化质量也很重要。这是第一项研究，研究了亲本来源和孵化条件对在野外孵化（而不是在受控实验室条件下）筑巢的海龟胚胎发育和孵化表型的影响。在这里，我们使用黑头海龟（Caretta caretta）来研究父母的起源（离合器），孵化温度和巢中的水环境对胚胎生长，孵化时间，孵化成功和孵化表型的影响。我们的研究结果表明，巢中的水分和温度会影响胚胎发育的最后三分之一，而孵化的大小与巢中的水分含量呈正相关，无论孵化条件如何，母体来源对孵化的成功和孵化的大小都有很大的影响。