NC Diamondback Terrapin Conservation Network

Key References & Links - Page under development: June 2008

This section is under development (first round April 2008). The citations will include any literature people think is relevant but the focus will be on general background papers, ones that are focused on North Carolina studies and current literature that pertains to conservation needs.

We have also provided links at the bottom of the page to terrapin programs in North Carolina and other states.

General Accounts

North Carolina

Conservation Issues

Taxonomy Genetics

Terrapin Pounds, NC

Outside North Carolina

Links

General Accounts.......

Brennessel, B. 2006. Diamonds in the Marsh: a natural history of the diamondback terrapin. University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH. 219 pp.

Brown, P. R. 1971. The story of California diamondbacks. Herpetology 5(2):37-38.

Carr, A. 1952. Handbook of Turtles. Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY.

Ernst, C. H., J. E. Lovich, and R. W. Barbour. 1994. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institute Press, Washington and London. 578p.

Hart, K. M. and D. S. Lee. 2006. The Diamondback Terrapin: the biology, ecology, cultural history, and conservation status of an obligate estuarine turtle. Studies in Avian Biology No. 32: 206-213. 

Pritchard, P. C. H. 1979. Encyclopedia of Turtles. T. F. H. Publications, New Jersey. 895p.

Seigel, R. A. and J. W. Gibbons. 1995. Workshop on the ecology, status, and management of the Diamondback Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, 2 August 1994: Final Results and Recommendations. Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 1 (3): 240-243.

North Carolina........Jump to the top

Conant, T. and J. T Newman. 1993. Wildlife profiles: Diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin. North Carolina Wild. Division of Conservation Education, N. C Wildlife Resource Commission. Raleigh, N. C.

Palmer, W. M. and A. L. Braswell. 1995. Reptiles of North Carolina. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill. 412 p.

Spivey, P. B. 1998.Home range, habitat selection, and diet of the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) in a North Carolina estuary. M.S. Thesis, University of Georgia, Athens.

 

 

Conservation Issues ........Jump to the top

Anonymous. 2006.  NOAA, Virginia Institute of Marine Science Announces Plans to aid Chesapeake Bay Cleanup. Derelict crab pots and fishing gear focus of group’s effort. NOAA Magazine @ http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2693.htm

 

Bishop, J. M. Incidental capture of diamondback terrapin by crab pots. Estuaries 6(4): 426-430.

 

Blakenship, K. 2006. They check in but they don’t check out: abandoned, ghost crab pots haunt Bay bottom luring creatures to their doom. The Bay Journal Feb 2007 http://www.bayjournal.com/article.cfm?article=2729.

 

Blanvillain, G., J. A. Schwenter, R. D. Day, D. Point, S. J. Christopher, W. A. Roumillat, and D. W. Owens. 2007. Diamondback terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin, as  sentinel species for monitoring pollution of estuarine systems in South Carolina and Georgia, USA. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 26(7): 1441-1450.

 

Burger, J. and S. D. Garber. 1995. Risk assessment, life history strategies and turtles, could declines be prevented or predicted. J. Toxicol. and Env. Health 46:483-500.

 

Burke, R. L.,  C. M. Schneider, and M. T. Dolinger. 2005 Cues used by raccoons to find turtle nests: effects of flags, human scent, and diamondback terrapin sign. J. Herp 29:312-315.

 

Butler, J. A. and G. L. Heinrich. 2004. Effectiveness of a bycatch reduction device on crab pots in Florida-Preliminary results. Presented at the Third Workshop of the Ecology, Status and Conservation of Diamondback Terrapins, Jacksonville, Fla.

 

Butler, J. A. and G. L. Heinrich. 2007. The effectiveness of bycatch reduction devices on crab pots at reducing capture and mortality of diamondback terrapins in Florida. Estuaries and Coasts 30: 179-185.

 

Butler, J. A., C. Broadhurst, M. Green,  and Z. Mullin. 2004. Nesting, nest predation and hatchling emergence of the Carolina diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin centrata, in Northeastern Florida. American Midland Naturalist 152: 145-155.

 

Cole, R. V. and T. E. Hester. 2001. Effect of four by-catch reduction devices on diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) capture and the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) harvest in the Delaware estuary. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 21: 825-833.

 

Dorcas, M. E., J. D. Wilson, and J. W. Gibbons. 2007. Crab trapping causes population decline and demographic change in diamondback terrapins over two decades. Biological Conservation. 137: 334-340.

 

Draud, M., M. Bossert, and S. Zimnavoda. 2004. Predation on hatchling and juvenile diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) by the Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). Journal of Herpetology 38: 467-470.

 

Feinberg, M. A. and C. E. Nelson. 2003. Nesting ecology and predation of diamondback terrapins. Malaclemys terrapin, at Gateway National Recreation Area, New York. Journal of Herpetology 37: 517-526.

 

Gardner, W. S., D. R. Kendall, R. R. Odom, H. L. Windom, and J. A. Stephens. 1978.  The distribution of methyl mercury in a contaminated salt marsh ecosystem. Environmental Pollution 15: 243-251.

 

Gibbons, J. W., J. E. Lovich, A. D. Tucker, N. N. Fitzsimmons, and J. L. Green. 2001. Demographics and ecological factors affecting conservation and management of the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) in South Carolina. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 4(1): 66-74.

 

Guiilory, V. 1993. Ghost fishing in blue crab traps. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 13: 459-466.

 

Guillory, V and P. Prejean. 1998. Effect of terrapin excluder devices on blue crab, Callinetes sapidus, trap catches. Mar. Fisheries Review 60(1): 38-40.

 

Hart, K. M. 2004. Intergrating ecological and genetic data to develop an ecologically and evolutionarily sound management strategy for a continuously-disturbed species, Malaclemys terrapin. Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University, Durham, NC.

 

Hart, K. M. 2005. Population biology of Diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin): defining and reducing threats across their geographic range. Unpubl. Ph.D. Dissertation, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

 

Havens, K. J., D. M. Bilkovie, D. Stanhope, K. Angstadt, and C. Hershner. 2006. Derelict blue crab trap impacts on marine fisheries in the lower York River, Virginia. Final report to NOAA Chesapeake Bay Program Office. 12pp. 

 

Herlands, R., R. Wood, J. Pritchard, H. Clapp, and N. Le Furge. 2004. Diamondback terrapin, (Malaclemys terrapin) head-starting project in southern New Jersey. Pages 13-18 in C. Swarth, W. M. Roosenburg and E. Kiviat, editors. Conservation and Ecology of Turtles of the Mid-Atlantic Region: A Symposium. Biblomania Salt Lake City, Utah. USA.

 

Hoyle, M. E. and J. W. Gibbons. 2000. Use of a marked population of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) to determine impacts of recreational crab pots. Chelonian Conservation and Biology 3(4): 735-737.

 

Meyers-Schone, L and B. T. Walton. 1994. Turtles as monitors of chemical contaminants in the environment. Review Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 135: 93-153.

 

Roosenburg, W. M. 2004. The impct of crab pot fisheries on terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) populations: Where we are and where do we need to go? Pp. 23-30. In Swarth, C. W. M. Roosenburg, and E. Kiviat (eds.). Conservation and Ecology of Turtles of the Mid-Atlantic Region: A Symposium, Salt Lake City, Ut.

 

Roosenburg, W. M., W. Cresko, M. Modesitte, and M. B. Robbins. 1997. Diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) mortality in crab pots. Conservation Biology 11: 1166-1172.

 

Roosenburg, W. M. and J. P. Green. 2000. Impact of a bycatch reduction device on diamondback and blue crab capture in crab pots. Ecological Applications 10: 882-889.

 

Seigel, R. A. 1980. Predation by raccoons on diamondback terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin tequesta. Jour. of Herpetology 14(1): 87-89.

 

Seigel, R. A. 1993. Apparent long-term decline in diamondback terrapin populations at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Herpetological Review 24: 102-103.

 

Szerlag, S. and S. P. Mcrobert. 2006. Road occurrence and mortality of the northern diamondback terrapin. Applied Herpetology 2: 27-37.

 

Thomson, C. 2007. A swarm of ‘ghost’ raises alarm in bay. Baltimore Sun. Sept. 17, 2007.

 

Tucker, A. D., J. W. Gibbons, and J. L Green. 2001. Estimates of adult survival and migration for diamondback terrapins: conservation insight from local extirpation within a metapopulation. Canadian Journal of Zoology 79: 2199-2209.

 

Wood, R. C. 1997. The impacts of commercial crab traps on northern diamondback terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin terrapin. Pp 46-53.  in J. Van Abbema (ed.). Proceedings: Conservation, Restoration, and Management of Tortoises and Turtles-An International Conference, Purchase, NY.

 

Wood, R. C. and R. Herlands. 1997. Turtles and tires:the impact of roadkills on northern diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin terrapin, populations on the Cape May Peninsula, southern New Jersey, USA.  Pp 46-53. In: J Van Abbema (ed.). Proceedings: Conservation, Restoration, and Management of Tortoises and Turtles-An International Conference, Purchase, NY.

 

 

Taxonomy and Genetics ........Jump to the top

Hartsell, T. D. 2001. Intraspecific variation in the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, and its ecological parameters. Ph. D. Dissertation. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. 

 

Hauswaldt, J. S. 2004. Population genetics and mating pattern of the diamondback terrpin (Malaclemys terrapin). Ph. D. Dissertation. University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.

 

Lamb, T. and J. C. Avise. 1992. Molecular and population genetic aspects of mitochondrial DNA variability in the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin. Journal of Heredity 83: 262-269.

 

Schwartz, A. 1955. The diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) of peninsular Florida. Proceedings Biological Society Washington 68: 157-164.

 

 

Terrapin Pounds, NC ........Jump to the top

[Clifford Pope (1967, Turtles of the United States and Canada, Alfred A Knopf, NY) provides an excellent overview of the information learned during the terrapin propagation efforts conducted at Beaufort between 1902 and 1948.] Because of the work at the Beaufort Lab up through the middle portion of the last century the biology of the Carolina diamondback terrapin was probably the most well known of any turtle in the world.

 

Barney, R. I. 1922. Further notes on the natural history artificial propagation of the diamond-back terrapin. Bulletin of US Bureau of Fisheries 38: 91-111.

 

Coker, R. E. 1906. The natural history and cultivation of the diamond-back terrapin, with notes on other forms of turtles. North Carolina Geological Survey Bulletin 14: 1-67.

 

Coker, R. E. 1920. The diamond-back terrapin: past, present, and future. Scientific Monthly 11:171-186.

 

Coker, R. E. 1951. The diamond-back terrapin in North Carolina. Pp 219-30. In Survey of Marine Fisheries of North Carolina, H. F. Taylor (ed.). Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press.

 

Hay, W. P. 1917. Artificial propagation of the diamondback terrapin. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Economic Circular 5: 1-21.

 

Hay, W. P. and H. D. Aller. 1913. Artificial propagation of the diamond-back terrapin. US Bureau of Fisheries, Economic Circular 5: 1-14.

 

Hildebrand, S. F. 1929. Review of experiments on artificial culture of diamond-back terrapin. Bulletin of U. S. Bureau of Fisheries 45:25-70.

 

Hildebrand, S. F. 1932. Growth of diamond-back terrapins, size attained, sex ratio and longevity. Zoologica 9(15): 551-63.

 

Hildebrand, S. F. and C. Hatsel. 1926. Diamond-back terrapin culture at Beaufort, N.C. U S Bureau of Fisheries, Economic Circular 60: 1-20.

 

Outside North Carolina........Jump to the top

Butler, J. A. 2002. Population ecology, home range, and seasonal movements and seasonal movements of the Carolina diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin centrata, in northeastern Florida. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Project Report NG96-007.

 

Carr, A., Jr. 1946. Status of the mangrove terrapin. Copeia 1946: 170-172.

 

Harden, L. A., N. A. Diluzio, J. W. Gibbons, and M. E. Dorcas. 2007. Spatial and thermal ecology of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) in a South Carolina salt marsh. Jour. North Carolina Academy Science. 123(3): 154-162.

 

Hart, K. M. and C. C. McIvor. 2008. Demography and Ecology of Mangrove Diamondback Terrapins in a Wilderness Area of Everglades National Park, Florida, USA. Copeia 2008(1): 200-208

 

Lee, M. A. 2003. Reproductive biology and seasonal testosterone patterns of the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, in the estuaries of Charleston, South Carolina. M.S. Thesis. The Graduate School at the College of Charleston, SC.

 

Levesque, E. M. 2000. Distribution and ecology of the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) in South Carolina salt marshes. MS. Thesis, The Graduate School at the College of Charleston, SC.

 

Lovich, J. E. and J. W. Gibbons. 1990. Age at maturity influences adult sex ratios in the turtle Malaclemys terrapin. Oikos 59: 126-134.

 

Lovich, J. E., A. D. Tucker, J. W. Gibbons, and T. D. Zimmerman. 1991. Behavior of hatchling diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) released in a South Carolina salt marsh. Herpetological Review 22: 81-83.

 

Muehlbauer, E. I. 1987. Field and laboratory studies of tidal activity in the turtle Malaclemys terrapin terrapin. Ph D. Dissertation, New York University, NY.

 

Riollano, A. I. 2003. Nesting behavior of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin) in Grice Cove, South Carolina. Unpublished Report of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

 

Roosenberg, W. M., K. L. Haley, and S. McGuire. 1999. Habitat selection and movements of diamondback terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin, in a Maryland estuary. Chelonian Conservation Biology 3(3): 425-429.

 

Seigel, R. A. 1980. Courtship and mating behavior of the diamondback terrapin Malaclemys terrapin tequesta. Journal Herpetology 14: 418-420.

 

Tucker, A. D., N. N. Fitzsimmons, and J. W. Gibbons. 1995. Resource partitioning by the estuarine turtle Malaclemys terrapin: tropic, spatial and temporal foraging constraints. Herpetologica 51(2); 167-181.

 

Zimmerman, T. D. 1989. Latitudinal reproduction variation of the salt marsh turtle, the diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin). M.S. Thesis, The Graduate School at the College of Charleston, SC.

 

"As the weather becomes cooler, the hunter takes large quantities of brush and makes a fire over the place where he knows the terrapins are buried. The terrapin imagine that spring has come, and crawl out to be captured."
Ingraham on Tidewater Maryland