PARENT SESSION
Oral Session # 7: Populations and Genetics.
Presiding: E Sotka
Monday, August 4. 8:00 AM to 11:30 AM, SITCC Meeting Room 106.
Factors contributing to variation in population level process in the diamondback terrapin.
Roosenburg, Willem 1, Kendall, William2, 1 Department of Biological Sciences, Athens, OH, USA2 USGS, Laurel, Maryland, USA
ABSTRACT- We will present the analysis of a 16-year mark-recapture database of a diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) population in Chesapeake Bay. Our population was studied from 1987 through 2002 and accumulated more than 26,000 capture records of more than 9,000 individuals. While sampling we employed a variety of capture techniques to minimize sex and size related bias of a single trapping technique. During 2000 the study was exposed to an oil spill. We collected data of age, size and reproductive status of all individuals. We analyze these data with open-robust design estimation techniques to derive standard demographic parameters and to identify time-dependent variation in capture probabilities as well as estimates of fecundity, survivorship and immigration. In our analyses, we test for the effects of environmental factors and the effects of the oil spill on population-level processes.
Key words: mark-recapture, life history, demography, open robust design