Factors Contributing to Temporal and Age-Specific Genetic Variation in the Freshwater Turtle Trachemys scripta
Scribner KT, Morreale SJ, Smith MH, Gibbons JW. 1995. Factors Contributing to Temporal and Age-Specific Genetic Variation in the Freshwater Turtle Trachemys scripta. Copeia. 1995(2):970-977
Freshwater turtle species can be characterized by a series of coevolved life-history traits that collectively lead to different expectations for population changes in genetic characteristics over time. Data from the few long-term ecological studies conducted to date suggest that freshwater turtles have long generation intervals (e.g. 23 yr for female C. picta based on life-table analysis) and high adult survivorship (.85 for T. scripta; .93 for E. blandingii) Longevity and low annual recruitment into breeding populations (e.g. on average, primipariys C. picta comprise < 6.5% of the female breeding population) suggest that, for large and randomly mating populations, little temporal variation in genetic characteristics would be expected.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Scribner, Kim; Morreale, Stephen; Smith, Michael; Gibbons, J.
- Units
- GATE
- Keywords
- freshwater turtles, Trachemys scripta, Turtles