Habitat disturbances differentially affect individual growth rates in a long-lived turtle

2008 ◽  
Vol 275 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Kenneth Dodd ◽  
Michael J. Dreslik
1994 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1354-1368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Biondi ◽  
Donald E. Myers ◽  
Charles C. Avery

Geostatistics provides tools to model, estimate, map, and eventually predict spatial patterns of tree size and growth. Variogram models and kriged maps were used to study spatial dependence of stem diameter (DBH), basal area (BA), and 10-year periodic basal area increment (BAI) in an old-growth forest stand. Temporal variation of spatial patterns was evaluated by fitting spatial stochastic models at 10-year intervals, from 1920 to 1990. The study area was a naturally seeded stand of southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinusponderosa Dougl. ex Laws. var. scopulorum) where total BA and tree density have steadily increased over the last decades. Our objective was to determine if increased stand density simply reduced individual growth rates or if it also altered spatial interactions among trees. Despite increased crowding, stem size maintained the same type of spatial dependence from 1920 to 1990. An isotropic Gaussian variogram was the model of choice to represent spatial dependence at all times. Stem size was spatially autocorrelated over distances no greater than 30 m, a measure of average patch diameter in this forest ecosystem. Because patch diameter remained constant through time, tree density increased by increasing the number of pine groups, not their horizontal dimension. Spatial dependence of stem size (DBH and BA) was always much greater and decreased less through time than that of stem increment (BAI). Spatial dependence of BAI was close to zero in the most recent decade, indicating that growth rates in 1980–1990 varied regardless of mutual tree position. Increased tree crowding corresponded not only to lower average and variance of individual growth rates, but also to reduced spatial dependence of BAI. Because growth variation was less affected by intertree distance with greater local crowding, prediction of individual growth rates benefits from information on horizontal stand structure only if tree density does not exceed threshold values. Simulation models and area estimates of tree performance in old-growth forests may be improved by including geostatistical components to summarize ecological spatial dependence.


Author(s):  
Laura Härkönen ◽  
Pauliina Louhi ◽  
Riina Huusko ◽  
Ari Huusko

Understanding the dynamic nature of individual growth in stream-dwelling salmonids may help forecast consequences of climate change on northern fish populations. Here, we performed an experimental capture-mark-recapture study in Atlantic salmon to quantify factors influencing wintertime growth variation among juveniles under different scenarios for ice cover reduction. We applied multiple imputation to simulate missing size observations for unrecaptured fish, and to account for individual-level variation in growth rates. The salmon parr exhibited substantial body length shrinkage in early winter, suppressed growth through mid-winter, and increasing growth rates in late winter and particularly in spring. Unexpectedly, the presence of ice cover had no direct effects on wintertime growth. Instead, our results implied increasing energetic costs with reducing ice cover: individuals exposed to absent or shortened ice-covered period gained mass at a lowered rate in spring whereas the present, long ice-covered period was followed by rapid growth. This study emphasizes natural resilience of Atlantic salmon to wintertime environmental variation which may help the species to cope with the reductions in ice cover duration due to climate change.


<em>Abstract</em>.—To measure secondary productivity of mangrove systems, we estimated the abundance (individuals/m<sup>2</sup>) and mass increment (g/month) of the two bivalve species: the black ark <em>Anadara tuberculosa </em>and palmate oyster <em>Saccostrea palmula</em>. Mass increments were based on individual growth rates derived from length-frequency distributions analyses. Samples were collected at three mangrove estuaries in a sand barrier at Ensenada de La Paz from August 2007 to July 2009. The average abundance was 1.27 individuals/m<sup>2</sup> for black ark and 510 individuals/m<sup>2</sup> for palmate oysters. Estimated growth rates were 3.67 g/month for black ark and 0.18 g/month for palmate oysters. The average secondary productivity of the black ark was 4.51 g•m<sup>-2</sup>•month<sup>-1</sup> and peaked during the spring, while for the palmate oyster <em>Saccostrea palmula </em>it was 97.9 g•m<sup>-2</sup>•month<sup>-1</sup>, with peak productivity recorded during the summer. The findings of this investigation constitute a necessary element for establishing a baseline to evaluate the consequences of the various natural and anthropogenic pressures that the mangrove systems of El Mogote of La Paz Bay, Baja California Sur, Mexico.


2003 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 684-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Brännäs ◽  
Sara Jonsson ◽  
Hans Lundqvist

We studied the benefit of being territorial as an effect of food abundance by measuring the proportions of individuals that displayed a territorial, floating (individuals occasionally displayed territorial behaviour), or nonterritorial (shoaling) behaviour strategy, and individual growth rates. Also, swimming activity was monitored as an indicator of emigration. Replicate groups of 12 juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta) were released into an artificial stream channel, fed according to one of four food regimes for 10 days, and allocated to one of three behaviour categories. There was no significant relationship between food abundance and the number of territorial individuals. Instead, the proportions of individuals that displayed the alternative behaviour strategies, i.e., floating and nonterritorial, changed with food abundance. At the lowest food level, more individuals displayed nonterritorial than floating behaviour, but these two strategies were equally represented at the highest food level. The difference in growth rates with respect to behaviour category was highest at intermediate food levels. At the highest and lowest food levels, nonterritorial fish and floaters grew nearly as fast or as poorly, respectively, as the territorial individuals. Swimming activity between the two sections of the stream tank was greatest at the lowest food level, and there was a general tendency (not significant) for the floaters to exhibit the greatest activity.


Ecosphere ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. e01862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Granados ◽  
Ianina Altshuler ◽  
Stéphane Plourde ◽  
Gregor F. Fussmann

1993 ◽  
pp. 147-158
Author(s):  
Marietta S. Palada-de Vera ◽  
Ambekar E. Eknath

Author(s):  
P. H. T. Hartley

1039 flounders were marked with numbered vulcanite disks in the estuaries of the Tamar and Lynher.148 flounders were recaptured and of these seven fish were recovered a second time after one recovery and release, and one fish was recaptured on three occasions after two previous recoveries and releases.Only two fish were recovered at a distance from Plymouth. Both had moved eastward, up the English Channel.There was little or no growth in the winter months.Individual growth rates were found to vary greatly.The flounders living in the last reach of the Tamar near Saltash tended to remain in one limited area during the winter months, save for a drift down-stream of some of the larger fish. In the spring there was an upstream movement of the smaller, immature fish.Flounders which had gone down to the sea to spawn might return to the river in which they were marked, or to the other river of the two which join to form the Hamoaze, or they might move right away from the area where they were marked.


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