A twenty year mark-recapture dataset from the loggerhead nesting beach on Keewaydin Island, off the southwest coast of Florida, was analyzed using a two-state open robust design model in Program MARK to provide insight into recent nesting declines in the state. A total of 2,292 encounters representing 841 individual tag IDs were used for this analysis. Survival was estimated at 0.73 (95% CI 0.69-0.76), and there was no evidence from remigration rate or clutch frequency to suggest the composition of the nesting assemblage had changed over time. The mark-recapture analysis was supplemented with a satellite tracking component to identify the offshore foraging areas utilized by Keewaydin nesters. Eleven nesting females were outfitted with platform terminal transmitters, which transmitted for 42 to 300+ days including inter-nesting intervals and subsequent migration to foraging grounds. Site fidelity tests and kernel density home range analyses were used to describe foraging habitats. Females foraging in the eastern Gulf of Mexico were within the recent 64 m bottom longline fishery restriction. Areas identified as important habitats during the remigration interval should be used to inform managers in creating targeted management strategies to aid population recovery without the use of broad fishery closures.

Ecotoxicology studies attempt to evaluate the consequences of exposure to environmental contaminants by defining exposure and effects parameters across multiple levels of biological organization. Genetic markers are well-suited for these studies as they can track both somatic and evolutionary effects. In the studies reported here, connections among contaminant levels in environmental media and biota, in vitro bioassay results, and changes in individual- and population-level biomarkers were explored. Sediment and/or wildlife samples were collected from each of three sites of documented environmental contamination, Sumgayit and Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan and East Fork Poplar Creek in Tennessee. Sumgayit and Baku are heavily contaminated with petroleum and petrochemical wastes. Sediments from several areas and tissues from turtles inhabiting a contaminated wetland contained high levels of several compounds, including mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticides. Sediment extracts produced variable responses in the Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity assay and did not necessarily reflect contaminant burden. Micronucleus counts in European pond turtles were not statistically different from counts in the same species from an uncontaminated reference site. The counts were statistically correlated with tissue levels of mercury, heptachlor, DDD, hexachlorobenzene, and trans-nonachlor. These results confirmed that Sumgayit and Baku are heavily contaminated with a complex mixture of pollutants and demonstrated that genotoxic effects from exposure to contaminated sediments appear to be slight. East Fork Poplar Creek is a stream that receives contaminant influx from a former Department of Energy nuclear weapons production facility and several point and non-point sources around the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In this study, coefficient of variation in cellular DNA content and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers were examined in central stonerollers and compared to previous studies in which the same markers were evaluated in red-breasted sunfish from the same sites. While assay responses were attenuated in stonerollers compared to the sunfish, there is some evidence of genetic damage in both species at the most contaminated sampling site. A common problem in the wildlife studies was high within sample variability combined with small sample size, which most likely masked potential contaminant-induced differences in markers used in these studies.

The global population of leatherback sea turtles is decreasing worldwide, with extinction predicted for some populations within 15 years. The population of leatherbacks nesting at Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge (SPNWR), St. Croix, USVI, displayed a significant population increase from 1982 2001 but has experienced a slowed recovery since then. To better understand the causes of this decline, a historical database of SPNWR nesting female data was utilized to investigate trends in reproductive indices. Since 2001, average remigration interval (RI) has increased significantly, while average number of clutches laid, hatch success, hatchling production, and the percentage of neophytes recruited annually have decreased. Annual remigrant numbers have been stable to increasing, suggesting that adult survivorship remains high. To assess whether maternallyderived factors may be influencing clutch production and low hatch success, blood samples were collected by saturation sampling during nesting. Circulating estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone were evaluated in conjunction with reproductive data. All hormones were highest at deposition of the first clutch and declined progressively with each consecutive clutch, as previously observed in other sea turtle species. Increased clutch production in remigrants was associated with higher estradiol levels compared to neophytes, presumably due to ovarian size and maturity. Contrary to observations in Pacific leatherbacks, progesterone decreased significantly with successive nests and total levels of estrogen were significantly lower, suggesting Atlantic leatherbacks may undergo a longer migration or spend more time in the feeding grounds prior to migrating. Linear Mixed Effect (LME) modeling was employed to determine whether hormone levels at nesting might serve as indicators of reproductive variables. Because models for all hormones were individual specific, a population model could not be developed that effectively utilized hormone levels at nesting to predict clutch size, hatch success, age or RI. However, number of clutches laid may potentially be predicted based on individually tailored estrogen models. Decreased recruitment (due to increased mortality of early life stages, altered sex ratios, or delayed age to sexual maturity), decreased productivity, and increased RI (possibly due to diminished foraging ground productivity) appear primarily responsible for current population trends which threaten the population's future.

The aims of this work are:1. To provide the normal cervical and coelomic radiographic appearance of the Loggerhead sea turtle, in the dorso-ventral view, as well as other useful landmarks, to allow for correlation of shell scutes with internal anatomic structures. 2. To provide the normal radiographic anatomy of the limbs of the Loggerhead sea turtle in combination with data obtained from computed tomography - osteological, gross anatomical and histological data.3. To describe the normal ultrasonographic appearance of cervical structures and coelomic organs of the Loggerhead sea turtle, and to provide the respective images of frozen cross-sections for anatomical reference.4. To provide normal computed tomographic images of the vertebral column and coelomic structures of the Loggerhead sea turtle, by establishing reference standards for organ size and position in this species; to provide images of virtual tracheo-bronchoscopy and 3D reconstructions of the respiratory tract and bone structures.5. To provide the normal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appearance of coelomic structures of Loggerhead sea turtles in T1 and T2-weighted scans via comparison with cross-sectional anatomic sections of this species.

Thesis (M.S.)--North Carolina State University, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Dec. 18, 2005). Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

There are more than 300 species of extant turtles, the majority of which belong to the Testudinoidea. Here I describe a new box turtle from the Eocene-Oligocene boundary of west Texas. This specimen impacts the phylogeny of Testudinoid turtles by pulling the divergence of extant Testudinoid turtles back in time approximately 25 million years. This results in a need to refocus on paleontological research of Testudinoid turtles into the late Paleogene and early Neogene to identify fossil localities and specimens that can help further elucidate the evolution of the group. New work on the fossil record of turtles also requires a re-evaluation of methods used for identifying and evaluating the evolutionary history of turtles as a group. An implicit assumption over the last 150 years of turtle paleontology was that both turtle shells and turtle heads reveal congruent and complimentary evolutionary relationships. This assumption was never adequately tested. I utilized a series of methods to evaluate the congruency of phylogenetic hypotheses using disparate anatomical regions. Using a dataset of extant Emydid turtles, I evaluated whether turtle shells and turtle heads provided congruent and complimentary phylogenetic hypotheses. My methods employed parsimony-based reconstruction, maximum-likelihood-based reconstruction, and Bayesian-based reconstruction, including Bayesian-partition analyses. My conclusions are that heads and shells do not provide fully congruent topologies, and that in many cases there is a loss of phylogenetic resolution when only turtle sklls are used to generate phylogenies. The implication is that a focus on a robust and complete dataset of anatomical features will provide the best basis for further investigation of fossils. My work also provides a framework for dataset exploration by providing a method to identify the most robust phylogenetic signal found within a dataset. This framework will allow non-turtle paleontologists and systematists the ability to further investigate their own datasets and develop robust hypotheses of evolutionary relationships across the diversity of the tree of Life. / text

In oviparous animals, maternal traits such as the investment of resources in eggs and oviposition site selection are often important determinants of offspring phenotypic quality, and may have an adaptive role in tailoring offspring phenotypes to local environmental conditions. This thesis examines the adaptive significance of two specific maternal traits in the green turtle (Chelonia mydas); namely the deposition of fat-soluble antioxidants in egg yolk, and the selection of nest sites via natal homing. (Please view 'front matter' file for full abstract)

Ecotoxicology studies attempt to evaluate the consequences of exposure to environmental contaminants by defining exposure and effects parameters across multiple levels of biological organization. Genetic markers are well-suited for these studies as they can track both somatic and evolutionary effects. In the studies reported here, connections among contaminant levels in environmental media and biota, in vitro bioassay results, and changes in individual- and population-level biomarkers were explored. Sediment and/or wildlife samples were collected from each of three sites of documented environmental contamination, Sumgayit and Baku in the Republic of Azerbaijan and East Fork Poplar Creek in Tennessee. Sumgayit and Baku are heavily contaminated with petroleum and petrochemical wastes. Sediments from several areas and tissues from turtles inhabiting a contaminated wetland contained high levels of several compounds, including mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticides. Sediment extracts produced variable responses in the Salmonella/microsome mutagenicity assay and did not necessarily reflect contaminant burden. Micronucleus counts in European pond turtles were not statistically different from counts in the same species from an uncontaminated reference site. The counts were statistically correlated with tissue levels of mercury, heptachlor, DDD, hexachlorobenzene, and trans-nonachlor. These results confirmed that Sumgayit and Baku are heavily contaminated with a complex mixture of pollutants and demonstrated that genotoxic effects from exposure to contaminated sediments appear to be slight. East Fork Poplar Creek is a stream that receives contaminant influx from a former Department of Energy nuclear weapons production facility and several point and non-point sources around the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In this study, coefficient of variation in cellular DNA content and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA markers were examined in central stonerollers and compared to previous studies in which the same markers were evaluated in red-breasted sunfish from the same sites. While assay responses were attenuated in stonerollers compared to the sunfish, there is some evidence of genetic damage in both species at the most contaminated sampling site. A common problem in the wildlife studies was high within sample variability combined with small sample size, which most likely masked potential contaminant-induced differences in markers used in these studies.

Balinis vėžlys (Emys orbicularis L.) – plačiai paplitusi, tačiau didžioje savo arealo dalyje nykstanti, reta, Lietuvoje ir daugelyje Europos valstybių saugoma rūšis. Pagrindinės šios rūšies nykimo priežastys - vandens ir sausumos buveinių nykimas dėl sukcesijos ir žmogaus veiklos, populiacijų izoliuotumas, plėšrūnų poveikis, mažas veisimosi efektyvumas ir to pasėkoje nepakankamas populiacijų pasipildymas jaunais individais. Balinių vėžlių apsaugai Lietuvoje turi būti sudarytas ekologinis tinklas, kuriame pagal svarbą būtų išskirtos teritorijos priklausomai nuo jose gyvenančių balinių vėžlių populiacijų skaitlingumo ir ilgalaikio išgyvenimo galimybės tam, kad užtikrinti svarbiausioms iš šių teritorijų apsaugos statusą ir pagerinti balinių vėžlių migracijos sąlygas. Kad užtikrinti tinkamą balinių vėžlių apsaugą reikia taikyti ir kitokias priemones: reguliarų buveinių tvarkymą, dėčių apsaugą nuo plėšrūnų, visuomenės informavimą. / European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis L.) is a widely spread species, declining in a vast part of it‘s range, rare and therefore needs protection in Lithuania and many other European countries. The main reasons of it‘s decline are the lack of suitable water and terrestrial habitats due to succession and human action, impact of predators, little reproduction efficiency and, consequently, lack of young individuals of reproductive age. To protect this species in Lithuania ecological network should be formed, which would include important European pond turtles‘ habitats, where large enough and viable populationas are found. So protection status of the most importatnt habitats would be secured and migration conditiond improved. To make proper pond turtle protection also other conservation tools, such as regular habitat management, nest protection, public conveyance should be applied.

Road mortality threatens the long-term viability of some wildlife populations, particularly herpetofauna. Wildlife road mortalities were recorded during regular bicycle-based surveys of the 1000 Islands Parkway in south eastern Ontario during 2010 and 2011. These data were grouped with similar data collected in 2008 and 2009 to determine when and where animals were killed along the Parkway to better inform mitigation options. Temporal and spatial clustering was significant for five taxonomic groups: snakes were found dead on the road primarily in September, turtles in June, frogs in July, and birds and mammals in June and July. The majority of turtles found on the Parkway were adult females, which may have implications for long-term population demographics and persistence. Regression tree analysis indicates day-of-year as the most important variable in explaining wildlife road mortality for all taxonomic groups, with higher road mortalities coinciding with higher minimum daily temperature. Precipitation and traffic accounted for little variation in snake road mortality, and had no effect on turtle, frog, bird or mammal road kills. Spatial clustering was found for all taxonomic groups with overlapping areas of significant clustering between years identified as hot spots. In addition, the potential for drainage culverts to reduce wildlife road mortality was tested with two experimental treatments in 2010: (1) blocked culverts to prevent wildlife use, and (2) drift fence installation adjacent to culverts to encourage wildlife use. Wildlife road mortalities at these locations as well as control culverts were compared with 2008 wildlife road mortalities when there were no culvert treatments. The number of road kills in the area of treatments was too low to measure changes for all taxa but frogs, which showed no significant changes in road kills for any culvert treatment. The results of the study are used to evaluate a list of potential options for mitigating wildlife road mortality along the Parkway, and a list of implementable actions is identified. / Thesis (Master, Environmental Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-05-31 16:33:51.623