Demography and viability analyses of a diamondback terrapin population

Abstract

The diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, is a long-lived species with special management requirements but quantitative analyses to support management are lacking. I analyzed mark–recapture data and constructed an age-classified matrix population model to determine the status and viability of the only known diamondback terrapin population in Rhode Island. Female diamondback terrapins were captured, marked, and recaptured while nesting during 1990–2001. Population growth rate (λ) was 1.034 (95% confidence interval = 1.012–1.056). For the preceding 5 years, however, abundance had been stable at about 188 breeding females. Adult apparent survival was high but declined slightly by 0.14% per year from 0.959 in 1990 to 0.944 in 2000. Recruitment of breeding females also decreased during the study period; therefore, survival was increasingly a greater component of population growth rate. Juvenile survival was 0.565 at λ = 1.034 and 0.446 at λ = 1. Both retrospective (mark–recapture) and prospective (matrix population model) analyses showed a greater influence of survival versus reproduction on population growth. Population- model projections showed that capping nests to improve reproductive success could increase population growth rate, but the magnitude of increase was positively related to pre-reproductive survival, therefore negating nest capping as a remedy for declining populations or poor survival. Extinction attributable to demographic stochasticity is unlikely.