Open Access
How to translate text using browser tools
28 October 2021 Terrapin Station: Individual, Sex, and Site Factors Related to Turtle Growth Variability
Leigh Anne Harden, Stephen R. Midway, J. Whitfield Gibbons
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

For many turtle species, life history traits such as body size, age at maturity, and somatic growth rate can vary among individuals and habitats and between the sexes. Therefore, it is important to consider factors that may influence growth when modeling (somatic) growth for turtles. Long-term capture–mark–recapture studies lend themselves to studying somatic growth in turtles due to the repeated measurements of individuals over time. We used a long-term dataset to examine growth patterns of philopatric Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, USA. We used a hierarchical three-parameter von Bertalanffy model to estimate individual growth of 44 female and 36 male Diamondback Terrapins that were each captured 3–17 times between 1983 and 2019. Sex and site (i.e., tidal creeks) were included as second-level model effects. Mean maximum asymptotic size (plastron length; L = 173.4 mm for females and L = 104.4 mm for males) and mean growth coefficients (K = 0.28 for females and K = 0.61 for males) varied between sexes. Growth variability among individuals was high, ranging from 23 to 56% within species for different parameters, suggesting that models not accounting for individual variability would be pooling dissimilar information. Site was a significant covariate for male growth, but not female growth. Understanding how Diamondback Terrapin somatic growth varies within a population may inform habitat quality as well as population health and vulnerability to anthropogenic stressors. Our model can serve as a comparison for other Diamondback Terrapin populations and provide more detailed information for demographic models that can be used in conservation decisions.

Copyright 2021 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Leigh Anne Harden, Stephen R. Midway, and J. Whitfield Gibbons "Terrapin Station: Individual, Sex, and Site Factors Related to Turtle Growth Variability," Journal of Herpetology 55(4), 411-421, (28 October 2021). https://doi.org/10.1670/20-146
Accepted: 2 June 2021; Published: 28 October 2021
Back to Top