Category

Poster - Basic

Description

The Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) is a small terrestrial turtle, which lives primarily in open woodlands. Populations of these turtles can be threatened if drastic changes happen to their woodland environment, such as development projects. This is exactly what happened to a small population of eastern box turtles along the Blackwater Creek trail in downtown Lynchburg, VA. We have been researching this population since 1999 using a capture-mark-recapture method. The population was undisturbed until 2020 when a large portion of the study site was timbered for urban development, reducing the size of the forest habitat from 11 to 2.2 ha. We hypothesize that if the population of box turtles in the post-development forest remnant is viable, then population characteristics, such as home range and density, should be similar to those from the pre-development population. Our study used the shell notch method to mark turtles, and several were monitored with radio telemetry to calculate population size, density, and home range size. There was a decrease in population size from 169 to 89 turtles, pre-development to post development, as well as a decrease in home range size from 8622 to 2449 m2, while turtle density increased from 15 to 40 m2. Even though there has been a decrease in the box turtle population living in the post-development forest remnant, some turtles successfully migrated from the timbered portion of the original study site to the forest remnant. This likely contributed to the increased turtle density and reduced home range sizes. Our research has brought understanding on how box turtles are affected by urban development, which typically reduces the amount of habitable space for the turtles. Further research needs to be done on how to mitigate the effects of urban development on this species.

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Undergraduate - 2nd Place Award Winner

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Apr 17th, 1:00 PM

Challenges of a changing environment: Urban development impacts a population of Eastern Box turtles

Poster - Basic

The Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) is a small terrestrial turtle, which lives primarily in open woodlands. Populations of these turtles can be threatened if drastic changes happen to their woodland environment, such as development projects. This is exactly what happened to a small population of eastern box turtles along the Blackwater Creek trail in downtown Lynchburg, VA. We have been researching this population since 1999 using a capture-mark-recapture method. The population was undisturbed until 2020 when a large portion of the study site was timbered for urban development, reducing the size of the forest habitat from 11 to 2.2 ha. We hypothesize that if the population of box turtles in the post-development forest remnant is viable, then population characteristics, such as home range and density, should be similar to those from the pre-development population. Our study used the shell notch method to mark turtles, and several were monitored with radio telemetry to calculate population size, density, and home range size. There was a decrease in population size from 169 to 89 turtles, pre-development to post development, as well as a decrease in home range size from 8622 to 2449 m2, while turtle density increased from 15 to 40 m2. Even though there has been a decrease in the box turtle population living in the post-development forest remnant, some turtles successfully migrated from the timbered portion of the original study site to the forest remnant. This likely contributed to the increased turtle density and reduced home range sizes. Our research has brought understanding on how box turtles are affected by urban development, which typically reduces the amount of habitable space for the turtles. Further research needs to be done on how to mitigate the effects of urban development on this species.

 

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