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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Population Ecology Of The Diamondback Terrapin At Their Northern Range Limit, Patricia M. Levasseur
Population Ecology Of The Diamondback Terrapin At Their Northern Range Limit, Patricia M. Levasseur
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation research focuses on the population ecology of the northern diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin terrapin) in Wellfleet Bay, MA. The northern diamondback terrapin is a Massachusetts-threatened turtle species restricted to estuarine environments. With a range from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina to Massachusetts, Cape Cod Bay is the northernmost part of the subspecies range. Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary has been using capture-mark-recapture (CMR) methods since 1980 marking over 3,000 individuals; however, low detection rates and variable search effort have resulted in unreliable population estimates not suitable for informing conservation practices within the bay. Low sample sizes, …
Statistical Improvements For Ecological Learning About Spatial Processes, Gaetan L. Dupont
Statistical Improvements For Ecological Learning About Spatial Processes, Gaetan L. Dupont
Masters Theses
Ecological inquiry is rooted fundamentally in understanding population abundance, both to develop theory and improve conservation outcomes. Despite this importance, estimating abundance is difficult due to the imperfect detection of individuals in a sample population. Further, accounting for space can provide more biologically realistic inference, shifting the focus from abundance to density and encouraging the exploration of spatial processes. To address these challenges, Spatial Capture-Recapture (“SCR”) has emerged as the most prominent method for estimating density reliably. The SCR model is conceptually straightforward: it combines a spatial model of detection with a point process model of the spatial distribution of …
Evaluation Of Environmental Factors Influencing American Marten Distribution And Density In New Hampshire, Donovan Drummey
Evaluation Of Environmental Factors Influencing American Marten Distribution And Density In New Hampshire, Donovan Drummey
Masters Theses
Though the American marten (Martes americana) is widely distributed across northern North America, habitat use and population abundance vary widely across the range. Due to its status as a furbearer, the species has been extensively researched, resulting in a large body of knowledge about the species’ ecology, distribution, and abundance, as well as drivers of population structure and dynamics. More recently, marten research has shifted focus to genetics, habitat associations, and estimation of population state variables. The rapid increase in estimation of states such as occupancy, abundance, and density has likely been driven by the increasing accessibility of …