Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species

Turtle body size is associated with demographic and other traits like mating success, reproductive output, maturity, and survival. As such, growth analyses are valuable for testing life history theory, demographic modeling, and conservation planning. Two important but unsettled research areas relate...

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Autores principales:	Devin Edmonds, Michael J. Dreslik, Jeffrey E. Lovich, Thomas P. Wilson, Carl H. Ernst
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/25d56c464afc4e8a8c90d204c215f0be
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:25d56c464afc4e8a8c90d204c215f0be2021-11-25T06:19:38ZGrowing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species1932-6203https://doaj.org/article/25d56c464afc4e8a8c90d204c215f0be2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8601529/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Turtle body size is associated with demographic and other traits like mating success, reproductive output, maturity, and survival. As such, growth analyses are valuable for testing life history theory, demographic modeling, and conservation planning. Two important but unsettled research areas relate to growth after maturity and growth rate variation. If individuals exhibit indeterminate growth after maturity, older adults may have an advantage in fecundity, survival, or both over younger/smaller adults. Similarly, depending on how growth varies, a portion of the population may mature earlier, grow larger, or both. We used 23-years of capture-mark-recapture data to study growth and maturity in the Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata), a species suffering severe population declines and for which demographic data are needed for development of effective conservation and management strategies. There was strong support for models incorporating sex as a factor, with the interval growth model reparametrized for capture-mark-recapture data producing later mean maturation estimates than the age-based growth model. We found most individuals (94%) continued growing after maturity, but the instantaneous relative annual plastral growth rate was low. We recommend future studies examine the possible contribution of such slow, continued adult growth to fecundity and survival. Even seemingly negligible amounts of annual adult growth can have demographic consequences affecting the population vital rates for long-lived species.Devin EdmondsMichael J. DreslikJeffrey E. LovichThomas P. WilsonCarl H. ErnstPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 11 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Devin Edmonds Michael J. Dreslik Jeffrey E. Lovich Thomas P. Wilson Carl H. Ernst Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
description	Turtle body size is associated with demographic and other traits like mating success, reproductive output, maturity, and survival. As such, growth analyses are valuable for testing life history theory, demographic modeling, and conservation planning. Two important but unsettled research areas relate to growth after maturity and growth rate variation. If individuals exhibit indeterminate growth after maturity, older adults may have an advantage in fecundity, survival, or both over younger/smaller adults. Similarly, depending on how growth varies, a portion of the population may mature earlier, grow larger, or both. We used 23-years of capture-mark-recapture data to study growth and maturity in the Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata), a species suffering severe population declines and for which demographic data are needed for development of effective conservation and management strategies. There was strong support for models incorporating sex as a factor, with the interval growth model reparametrized for capture-mark-recapture data producing later mean maturation estimates than the age-based growth model. We found most individuals (94%) continued growing after maturity, but the instantaneous relative annual plastral growth rate was low. We recommend future studies examine the possible contribution of such slow, continued adult growth to fecundity and survival. Even seemingly negligible amounts of annual adult growth can have demographic consequences affecting the population vital rates for long-lived species.
format	article
author	Devin Edmonds Michael J. Dreslik Jeffrey E. Lovich Thomas P. Wilson Carl H. Ernst
author_facet	Devin Edmonds Michael J. Dreslik Jeffrey E. Lovich Thomas P. Wilson Carl H. Ernst
author_sort	Devin Edmonds
title	Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
title_short	Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
title_full	Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
title_fullStr	Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
title_full_unstemmed	Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
title_sort	growing as slow as a turtle: unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/25d56c464afc4e8a8c90d204c215f0be
work_keys_str_mv	AT devinedmonds growingasslowasaturtleunexpectedmaturationaldifferencesinasmalllonglivedspecies AT michaeljdreslik growingasslowasaturtleunexpectedmaturationaldifferencesinasmalllonglivedspecies AT jeffreyelovich growingasslowasaturtleunexpectedmaturationaldifferencesinasmalllonglivedspecies AT thomaspwilson growingasslowasaturtleunexpectedmaturationaldifferencesinasmalllonglivedspecies AT carlhernst growingasslowasaturtleunexpectedmaturationaldifferencesinasmalllonglivedspecies
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Growing as slow as a turtle: Unexpected maturational differences in a small, long-lived species

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