Long-Term Turtle Declines: Protected Is a Verb, Not an Outcome

Howell, Hunter J.; Legere, Richard H.; Holland, David S.; Seigel, Richard A.

doi:10.1643/ch-19-177

Cited by 37 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The metrics of conservation success are different for tortoises and turtles than they are for most other animals. Their delayed sexual maturity, extended fertility and longevity means that conservationists may need many decades to determine whether a demographically healthy, age-diverse population has been successfully protected or reintroduced (see [181] for a successful example and [199,200] for unsuccessful ones).…”

Section: Innovative Conservation Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turtles and Tortoises Are in Trouble

et al. 2020

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Turtles and tortoises (chelonians) have been integral components of global ecosystems for about 220 million years and have played important roles in human culture for at least 400,000 years. The chelonian shell is a remarkable evolutionary adaptation, facilitating success in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Today, more than half of the 360 living species and 482 total taxa (species and subspecies combined) are threatened with extinction. This places chelonians among the groups with the highest extinction risk of any sizeable vertebrate group. Turtle populations are declining rapidly due to habitat loss, consumption by humans for food and traditional medicines and collection for the international pet trade. Many taxa could become extinct in this century. Here, we examine survival threats to turtles and tortoises and discuss the interventions that will be needed to prevent widespread extinction in this group in coming decades.

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Section: Innovative Conservation Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Turtles and Tortoises Are in Trouble

et al. 2020

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“…Globally, freshwater turtles are declining in human‐dominated systems due to a variety of pressures, such as habitat loss and degradation, and overexploitation for food or pets (Gibbons et al., 2000; Lovich et al., 2018). Further, the general life history strategy of freshwater turtles is characterized by a long lifespan, delayed sexual maturity, and low annual recruitment (Congdon et al., 1994), which can result in both slow declines and slow recovery rates (e.g., Howell et al., 2019; Mullin et al., 2020). Our investigation of the relationship between landscape integrity and habitat quality for two widely distributed habitat generalist turtles in North America suggests that ecological integrity has little influence on habitat quality for the red‐eared slider, potentially explaining its prominence as an exotic invasive species (Lowe et al., 2000), and ecological degradation could benefit both species at the population level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of landscape condition on relative abundance and body condition of two generalist freshwater turtle species

Mota

Brown

Canning

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Anthropogenic land use changes have altered the structure and function of ecosystems on nearly all parts of the planet (Sala et al., 2000;Zwick, 1992). These alterations often reduce the ability of landscapes to support high biological diversity and decrease the systems' resilience to environmental stressors (i.e., lower their ecological integrity; Freedman, 2015;Ordóñez & Duinker, 2012;Parrish et al., 2003). Much research has been devoted to documenting and quantifying negative impacts of anthropogenic land use changes on

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“…Many authors have foccused attention on the worldwide decrease of several populations of freshwater turtles (Browne and Hecnar 2007;Enneson and Litzgus 2009;Lovich et al 2018;Howell et al 2019;Van Dyke et al 2019). The factors causing such a decline seem to be habitat destruction and fragmentation as the most important for several species, but harvesting and pollution have also impact on others (Lovich et al, 2018;Van Dyke et al 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where are the turtles when they are not? Underwater refuges used by Hydromedusa tectifera COPE, 1869 in a suburban stream

et al. 2020

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Habitat requirements of Hydromedusa tectifera from an urban impacted stream from the Buenos Aires province, the Rodriguez stream, are here studied. We describe the type of underwater refuges, how they are used in different stream sections, stream margins, year season, size class and sex of the individuals, and analyze patterns of recurrence and aggregative use of refuges. Fieldwork was carried out from March 2017 to January 2018. Turtles were caught manually recording the following variables: site, transect and margin, sex, straight carapace length, and weight. Substrate types are differently used according to stream section, stream margin, year season and size class of individuals, but no difference was found between sexes. In the whole stream, most used refuges were the hollows on the margins (55.05%), followed by marginal aquatic vegetation (19.27%). Turtles of all class sizes and both sexes refuge into hollows on the stream margins. Despite different microhabitats provide refuge to turtles during all year seasons, hollows are the most important refuge during extreme cold and extreme hot seasons. In addition, turtle recaptures evidence a recurrence and aggregative pattern in the use of refuges. This information provides insight into the key aspects of the microhabitat requirements of the species and will be certainly useful in mitigating and preventing negative effects of the current stream management policies. It is worth highlighting the need to keep the stream margins unaltered to favor the presence of turtles in urban environments.

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Long-Term Turtle Declines: Protected Is a Verb, Not an Outcome

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 37 publications

References 52 publications

Turtles and Tortoises Are in Trouble

Turtles and Tortoises Are in Trouble

Influence of landscape condition on relative abundance and body condition of two generalist freshwater turtle species

Where are the turtles when they are not? Underwater refuges used by Hydromedusa tectifera COPE, 1869 in a suburban stream

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