Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though ... more Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern midwest, but declines sharply in the south. As ticks must acquire Lyme spirochetes from infected vertebrate hosts, the role of wildlife species composition on Lyme disease risk has been a topic of lively academic discussion. We compared tick–vertebrate host interactions using standardized sampling methods among 8 sites scattered throughout the eastern US. Geographical trends in diversity of tick hosts are gradual and do not match the sharp decline in prevalence at southern sites, but tick–host associations show a clear shift from mammals in the north to reptiles in the south. Tick infection prevalence declines north to south largely because of high tick infestation of efficient spirochete r...
I talians have made many important contributions to the culture and accomplishments of the United... more I talians have made many important contributions to the culture and accomplishments of the United States, and some of these are not generally appreciated. Two of the more underappreciated contributions are the Italian wall lizards, Podarcis sicula and Podarcis muralis. In the 1960s and 1970s, Italian wall lizards were imported to the United States in large numbers for the pet trade. These hardy, colorful little lizards are common in their home country, and are easily captured in large numbers. Enterprising animal dealers bought them at a cut rate in Italy and sold them to pet dealers all over the United States. Not all of these lizards made it to home terrariums, however — in at least four cities in North America, lizards escaped and survived in suburban neighborhoods. One of these populations began in Garden City, just a few miles west of Hofstra University. This population has spread in all directions, and recently the Italian lizards have been seen on the Hofstra campus. The scie...
Reliable estimates of animal and plant population sizes are necessary to track trends in populati... more Reliable estimates of animal and plant population sizes are necessary to track trends in populations through time. Diamondback terrapins are an ecologically unique keystone species that are globally declining. Conservation efforts for this species rely on accurate estimates of population sizes; however, diamondback terrapin population size estimates are difficult to measure with precision or accuracy. Terrapin collection methods are often labor-, time-, and cost-intensive. The present study compares two recently developed rapid assessment methods for measuring diamondback terrapin abundances. Since mark–recapture or similar data were unavailable, we could not test the accuracy of either method directly; instead, we compared the two methods. If the methods produce similar estimates of terrapin population size, this would increase confidence in these methods. We measured the abundance of diamondback terrapins at 77 sites in Long Island, New York, using headcount surveys and surveys of...
Climate change is likely to have strong impacts on oviparous animals with minimal parental care, ... more Climate change is likely to have strong impacts on oviparous animals with minimal parental care, because nest temperature can impact egg development, sex, and survival, especially in the absence of mitigation via parental care. Nesting females may compensate for increasing temperatures by altering how, when, and where they nest. We examined the factors determining nest depth and site choice as well as the effects that nest depth and location have on nest temperature and hatching success in the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). We found that nest depth was not correlated with nesting female size, egg characteristics, or daily temperatures. Nest temperatures and hatching success were correlated with different environmental and nest characteristics between 2004, a cool and wet year, and 2005, a hot and dry year. Females selected nests with lower southern overstory vegetation in 2005. These results suggest that nest depth and location can play an important yet varying role in ...
Home range (HR) studies are a particularly common approach to investigations of animal habitat us... more Home range (HR) studies are a particularly common approach to investigations of animal habitat use, resource availability, and response to management manipulation such as relocations. Terrapene carolina (Eastern box turtle) and its sister taxon T. ornata (Ornate box turtle) are especially popular subjects of HR studies because they are relatively easily tracked. Terrapene HR studies have revealed a wide variation in HR sizes within and between populations, due to factors such as differences in ecoregion and analytical approach (e.g., minimum convex polygons, kernel analysis, bivariate normal, multivariate Ornstein–Uhlenbeck stochastic process, harmonic means). We performed a meta-analysis of the available literature, including unpublished work to avoid bias due to under-publication, to explore the causes for variation in HR size. We found 19 studies reporting T. carolina HR sizes and seven studies reporting T. ornata HR sizes; the resulting meta-analysis revealed patterns that are n...
Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology, 2017
Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a threatened or endangered species in much of the... more Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a threatened or endangered species in much of their range along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Over an approximately three-week period from late April to mid-May 2015, hundreds of adult diamondback terrapins were found dead on the shores of Flanders Bay, Long Island, New York, USA. Concurrent with the mortality event, elevated densities of the paralytic shellfish toxin (PST)-producing dinoflagellate, Alexandrium fundyense (>10(4) cells L(-1)) and high levels of PST in bivalves (maximal levels = 540 μg STX eq. 100 g(-1) shellfish tissue) were observed in the Flanders Bay region, resulting in shellfish bed closures in regional tributaries. Gross and histologic postmortem examinations of terrapins revealed no physical trauma to individuals or a common, underlying disease process to explain the deaths. PST compounds (0.2-12.5 μg STX eq. 100 g(-1)) were present in various M. terrapin tissues collected over the duration of the mortali...
Abstract The wall lizard Podarcis sicula has been introduced in many locations outside its native... more Abstract The wall lizard Podarcis sicula has been introduced in many locations outside its native range. Partial sequences from the 12S rDNA, that had proved diagnostic for the three main subspecies, were used to test specimens from marginal native and from intro duced ...
Abstract. The Stephens' kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi, Family Hetero-myidac) is an endan... more Abstract. The Stephens' kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi, Family Hetero-myidac) is an endangered desert rodent of southern California. The historic range of D. stephensi has been severely reduced by urban and agricultural development, and remaining habitat is ...
The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a major species of sea turtle in Malaysia. This study was co... more The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a major species of sea turtle in Malaysia. This study was conducted in 1997 and 1998 at a rookery of green turtles in Pahang. Hatching success as well as sex ratio between male and female was mainly affected by incubation ...
The approximately 356 species of testudines (turtles) are remarkable for their blend of phylogene... more The approximately 356 species of testudines (turtles) are remarkable for their blend of phylogenetic conservatism and diversity [...]
The island rule postulates that the special ecological conditions on islands, such as limited res... more The island rule postulates that the special ecological conditions on islands, such as limited resource availability, can cause populations of large-bodied animals to evolve smaller sizes and small-bodied populations to evolve larger sizes. Although support for the island rule is well documented (with notable exceptions and debate) in mammals and birds, similar trends are poorly explored in ectothermic vertebrates. As part of a larger study investigating the ecology of Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes (Heterodon platirhinos Latreille, 1801), we compared the mean and maximum sizes of a population from a barrier island (∼4 000 ha) to snakes on an adjacent larger island (∼363 000 ha) and two mainland sites (450 total snakes across all study sites). We did not observe a difference between the small and the large islands, but we did find differences between the smallest island and the mainland. Female snakes on the barrier island were 8% smaller than those on the mainland, and the female from the...
Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though ... more Lyme disease is common in the northeastern United States, but rare in the southeast, even though the tick vector is found in both regions. Infection prevalence of Lyme spirochetes in host-seeking ticks, an important component to the risk of Lyme disease, is also high in the northeast and northern midwest, but declines sharply in the south. As ticks must acquire Lyme spirochetes from infected vertebrate hosts, the role of wildlife species composition on Lyme disease risk has been a topic of lively academic discussion. We compared tick–vertebrate host interactions using standardized sampling methods among 8 sites scattered throughout the eastern US. Geographical trends in diversity of tick hosts are gradual and do not match the sharp decline in prevalence at southern sites, but tick–host associations show a clear shift from mammals in the north to reptiles in the south. Tick infection prevalence declines north to south largely because of high tick infestation of efficient spirochete r...
I talians have made many important contributions to the culture and accomplishments of the United... more I talians have made many important contributions to the culture and accomplishments of the United States, and some of these are not generally appreciated. Two of the more underappreciated contributions are the Italian wall lizards, Podarcis sicula and Podarcis muralis. In the 1960s and 1970s, Italian wall lizards were imported to the United States in large numbers for the pet trade. These hardy, colorful little lizards are common in their home country, and are easily captured in large numbers. Enterprising animal dealers bought them at a cut rate in Italy and sold them to pet dealers all over the United States. Not all of these lizards made it to home terrariums, however — in at least four cities in North America, lizards escaped and survived in suburban neighborhoods. One of these populations began in Garden City, just a few miles west of Hofstra University. This population has spread in all directions, and recently the Italian lizards have been seen on the Hofstra campus. The scie...
Reliable estimates of animal and plant population sizes are necessary to track trends in populati... more Reliable estimates of animal and plant population sizes are necessary to track trends in populations through time. Diamondback terrapins are an ecologically unique keystone species that are globally declining. Conservation efforts for this species rely on accurate estimates of population sizes; however, diamondback terrapin population size estimates are difficult to measure with precision or accuracy. Terrapin collection methods are often labor-, time-, and cost-intensive. The present study compares two recently developed rapid assessment methods for measuring diamondback terrapin abundances. Since mark–recapture or similar data were unavailable, we could not test the accuracy of either method directly; instead, we compared the two methods. If the methods produce similar estimates of terrapin population size, this would increase confidence in these methods. We measured the abundance of diamondback terrapins at 77 sites in Long Island, New York, using headcount surveys and surveys of...
Climate change is likely to have strong impacts on oviparous animals with minimal parental care, ... more Climate change is likely to have strong impacts on oviparous animals with minimal parental care, because nest temperature can impact egg development, sex, and survival, especially in the absence of mitigation via parental care. Nesting females may compensate for increasing temperatures by altering how, when, and where they nest. We examined the factors determining nest depth and site choice as well as the effects that nest depth and location have on nest temperature and hatching success in the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). We found that nest depth was not correlated with nesting female size, egg characteristics, or daily temperatures. Nest temperatures and hatching success were correlated with different environmental and nest characteristics between 2004, a cool and wet year, and 2005, a hot and dry year. Females selected nests with lower southern overstory vegetation in 2005. These results suggest that nest depth and location can play an important yet varying role in ...
Home range (HR) studies are a particularly common approach to investigations of animal habitat us... more Home range (HR) studies are a particularly common approach to investigations of animal habitat use, resource availability, and response to management manipulation such as relocations. Terrapene carolina (Eastern box turtle) and its sister taxon T. ornata (Ornate box turtle) are especially popular subjects of HR studies because they are relatively easily tracked. Terrapene HR studies have revealed a wide variation in HR sizes within and between populations, due to factors such as differences in ecoregion and analytical approach (e.g., minimum convex polygons, kernel analysis, bivariate normal, multivariate Ornstein–Uhlenbeck stochastic process, harmonic means). We performed a meta-analysis of the available literature, including unpublished work to avoid bias due to under-publication, to explore the causes for variation in HR size. We found 19 studies reporting T. carolina HR sizes and seven studies reporting T. ornata HR sizes; the resulting meta-analysis revealed patterns that are n...
Toxicon : official journal of the International Society on Toxinology, 2017
Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a threatened or endangered species in much of the... more Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) are a threatened or endangered species in much of their range along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Over an approximately three-week period from late April to mid-May 2015, hundreds of adult diamondback terrapins were found dead on the shores of Flanders Bay, Long Island, New York, USA. Concurrent with the mortality event, elevated densities of the paralytic shellfish toxin (PST)-producing dinoflagellate, Alexandrium fundyense (>10(4) cells L(-1)) and high levels of PST in bivalves (maximal levels = 540 μg STX eq. 100 g(-1) shellfish tissue) were observed in the Flanders Bay region, resulting in shellfish bed closures in regional tributaries. Gross and histologic postmortem examinations of terrapins revealed no physical trauma to individuals or a common, underlying disease process to explain the deaths. PST compounds (0.2-12.5 μg STX eq. 100 g(-1)) were present in various M. terrapin tissues collected over the duration of the mortali...
Abstract The wall lizard Podarcis sicula has been introduced in many locations outside its native... more Abstract The wall lizard Podarcis sicula has been introduced in many locations outside its native range. Partial sequences from the 12S rDNA, that had proved diagnostic for the three main subspecies, were used to test specimens from marginal native and from intro duced ...
Abstract. The Stephens' kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi, Family Hetero-myidac) is an endan... more Abstract. The Stephens' kangaroo rat (Dipodomys stephensi, Family Hetero-myidac) is an endangered desert rodent of southern California. The historic range of D. stephensi has been severely reduced by urban and agricultural development, and remaining habitat is ...
The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a major species of sea turtle in Malaysia. This study was co... more The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is a major species of sea turtle in Malaysia. This study was conducted in 1997 and 1998 at a rookery of green turtles in Pahang. Hatching success as well as sex ratio between male and female was mainly affected by incubation ...
The approximately 356 species of testudines (turtles) are remarkable for their blend of phylogene... more The approximately 356 species of testudines (turtles) are remarkable for their blend of phylogenetic conservatism and diversity [...]
The island rule postulates that the special ecological conditions on islands, such as limited res... more The island rule postulates that the special ecological conditions on islands, such as limited resource availability, can cause populations of large-bodied animals to evolve smaller sizes and small-bodied populations to evolve larger sizes. Although support for the island rule is well documented (with notable exceptions and debate) in mammals and birds, similar trends are poorly explored in ectothermic vertebrates. As part of a larger study investigating the ecology of Eastern Hog-nosed Snakes (Heterodon platirhinos Latreille, 1801), we compared the mean and maximum sizes of a population from a barrier island (∼4 000 ha) to snakes on an adjacent larger island (∼363 000 ha) and two mainland sites (450 total snakes across all study sites). We did not observe a difference between the small and the large islands, but we did find differences between the smallest island and the mainland. Female snakes on the barrier island were 8% smaller than those on the mainland, and the female from the...
Uploads