SREL Reprint #3559

Chapter 6. Life History with Emphasis on Geographic Variation

Jeffrey E. Lovich, J. Whitfield Gibbons, and Kathryn M. Greene

University of Georgia, Savannah River Ecology Lab, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Introduction: Every organism is defined by a set of vital rates that evolve to enhance lifetime reproductive success and survival of individuals and their progeny. These rates vary due to the complex but sometimes predictable interactions among individuals, populations, and their environments. Collectively, these rates are controlled by life history traits including age and size at maturity, longevity, clutch size, offspring size, clutch frequency, and survivorship throughout the organism's life cycle. A significant body of literature is devoted to life history theory, which is beyond the scope of this chapter; we refer the reader to the seminal works of Bernardo, Cole, Congdon, Roff, Stearns, and others on this topic. Here, we review the life history traits of diamond-backed terrapins across all subspecies to understand both their unique adaptations and their vulnerabilities in the modern world. Particularly, we analyze geographic variation in demographic traits and body size among terrapin populations. The latter is important because reproductive traits in turtles are influenced by body size (e.g., Ryan and Lindeman 2007). Ernst and Lovich (2009) provide a summary of terrapin life history traits. In this chapter we analyze a comprehensive data set for the effects of geographic variation, specifically latitude, on terrapin life history traits. . .

SREL Reprint #3559

Lovich, J. E., J. W. Gibbons, and K. M. Greene. 2018. Chapter 6. Life History with Emphasis on Geographic Variation. pp.63-80 In: W. M. Roosenburg and V. S. Kennedy (Eds.). Ecology and Conservation of the Diamond-Backed Terrapin. Johns Hopkins University Press. Baltimore, MD.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).