Sixth Diamondback Terrapin Symposium - Abstract Submission Open Plans are well underway for the 6th Symposium on the Ecology, Status & Conservation of the Diamondback Terrapin to be held at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center on Seabrook Island, South Carolina from September 13-15, 2013. We are planning an exciting meeting at a great location right on the beach! We are now welcoming abstracts for oral and poster presentations. Abstracts should include a title, complete list of authors, and an abstract body of no more than 250 words. Please include affiliations for all authors and indicate the presenter with an asterisk (*). Please follow the formatting of the sample abstract attached to this email. Abstracts should be submitted electronically to terrapin2...@davidson.edu. Include in the subject line Abstract Oral or Abstract Poster followed by the first and last name of the lead author (e.g. Abstract Oral Dorcas). We may have more requests for oral presentations than we can accommodate and thus, some who submit as oral presentation may be invited to present as a poster. Deadline for abstract submission is June 7, 2013. Registration is not required for abstract submission but will be required for final acceptance. Early registration will be open from June 7 July 15, 2013 with regular registration from July 15 August 15, 2013. Capacity is limited, so register early! We expect registration fees to be below $75. See http://www.bio.davidson.edu/terrapin2013 for more information regarding transportation and lodging at Camp St. Christopher as well as a tentative meeting agenda. We look forward to seeing you in September! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.dtwg.org http://www.bio.davidson.edu/terrapin2013 Thank you to our partners for their generous support of our meeting! College of Charleston, Davidson College, Holy City Brewing, Kiawah Island Nature Program, Low Country Institute, Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Resort Quest, Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of North Carolina Wilmington & Zoo Atlanta __________________________________________________ Sample Abstract.
Crab trapping causes population decline and demographic changes in diamondback terrapins over two decades Michael E. Dorcas*1, John D. Willson2 & J. Whitfield Gibbons2 1 Department of Biology, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035-7118 2 University of Georgia Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802 Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are thought to be declining throughout their range. Although many factors have been proposed to contribute to terrapin declines, including increased predation of nests and adults, habitat loss and degradation, road mortality, commercial harvest for food, and mortality as bycatch in crab traps, few studies have provided evidence linking these agents to population declines. Because male and small female terrapins are most susceptible to mortality in crab traps, population declines should coincide with shifts in the age and size distributions of the population and a shift to a more female-biased sex ratio. We used twenty-one years of mark-recapture data (>2800 capture of 1399 individuals) from a declining diamondback terrapin population in South Carolina to test the prediction that the decline is the result of mortality in crab traps. Since the 1980s, the modal size of both male and female terrapins has increased substantially and the proportion that are female is higher than in earlier samples. Additionally, the population now contains more old and fewer young individuals than before. The changes in demography and sex ratio we observed suggest that this terrapin population has declined as a result of selective mortality of smaller individuals in crab traps. The use of bycatch-reduction devices on crab traps may help prevent terrapins from entering the traps, but current models are too large to prevent mortality of males and many females in this population.
