4 results on '"Whitesell, Mattie J."'
Search Results
2. Environmental factors affecting hatch success in the loggerheadsSea turtle (Caretta caretta)
- Author
-
Whitesell, Mattie J. and Whitesell, Mattie J.
- Subjects
- Loggerhead turtle Nests Georgia Ossabaw Island., Wildlife relocation Georgia., Nature conservation., Sea turtles Georgia., Nature Conservation., Tortues marines Géorgie (État), Caouanne Nids Géorgie (État) Ossabaw, Île., Faune Délocalisation Géorgie (État), Loggerhead turtle Nests, Nature conservation, Sea turtles, Wildlife relocation, Georgia, Georgia Ossabaw Island
- Abstract
Author's abstract: The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is a species federally listed as "threatened" whose global populations are declining. Georgia Department of Natural Resources conservation protocols for this species require the daily monitoring of nesting activity and permit physical relocation of nests which are at risk of being eroded or flooded by storms and high tides in order to increase hatch success--the proportion of hatched to unhatched eggs. Relocated nests are moved to an area with higher elevation in order to avoid flooding, but other variables such as increased temperature and decreased moisture are introduced when relocating. For years temperature and moisture have been regarded as the most important factors that contribute to hatch success but these variables are not always directly considered when relocating nests. It is likely that other environmental variables have an effect on hatch success and influence temperature and moisture. The hypothesis that a combination of geological and biological factors better predicts hatch success compared to temperature and/or moisture alone was tested. Secondly the environmental variables which influence temperature, moisture, and likelihood of tidal washover were also examined to evaluate their impact on hatch success. Loggerhead nests on Ossabaw Island, Georgia were monitored throughout incubation; upon incubation completion, hatch success was calculated. For all nests, temperature, moisture, vegetation cover and composition, elevation, dune morphology, and tidal washovers were recorded. These variables were analyzed to assess their individual and combined influences on nest conditions and ultimately on hatch success. In addition to number of washover events, temperature, and moisture, nest vegetation and elevation were important predictors of hatch success in loggerhead sea turtle nests and should be considered when nest relocation is required
- Published
- 2018
3. Fluctuating Asymmetry of Plant Leaves: Batch Processing with LAMINA and Continuous Symmetry Measures.
- Author
-
Graham, John H., Whitesell, Mattie J., Fleming II, Mark, Hel-Or, Hagit, Nevo, Eviatar, and Raz, Shmuel
- Subjects
- *
LEAVES , *CONTINUOUS symmetries , *SYMMETRY (Biology) , *ANGIOSPERMS , *CENTROID , *COMPUTER software , *TOPOLOGY - Abstract
Unlike landmark methods for estimating object asymmetry, continuous symmetry measures (CSM) can be used to measure the symmetry distance (ds) of inconsistent objects, such as plant leaves. Inconsistent objects have no homologous landmarks, no consistent topology, no quantitative consistency, and sometimes no matching points. When CSM is used in conjugation with LAMINA Leaf Shape Determination software, one can quickly and efficiently process a large number of scanned leaves. LAMINA automatically generates equally-spaced points around the perimeter of each leaf and the resulting x-y coordinates are normalized to average centroid size prior to estimating ds using a fold, average, unfold algorithm. We estimated shape asymmetry of leaves of three species of flowering plants: Ligustrum sinense (Chinese Privet), Rubus cuneifolius (blackberry), and Perilla frutescens (Perilla), as well as individual leaves from a few species of oaks (Quercus) and maples (Acer). We found that 100 to 200 equally-spaced points worked well for all three of the main species. Measurement error accounted for a small proportion of the asymmetry variation. Nevertheless, measurement error was great enough to generate some negative size scaling after normalization to average centroid size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Environmental Factors Affecting Hatch Success in the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta)
- Author
-
Whitesell, Mattie J
- Subjects
- Caretta caretta, Loggerhead sea turtle, Hatch success, Sea turtle conservation, Chelonia, Beach morphology, Wildlife management, Marine Biology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies, Electronic Theses & Dissertations, ETDs, Student Research
- Abstract
The loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) is a species federally listed as “threatened” whose global populations are declining. Georgia Department of Natural Resources conservation protocols for this species require the daily monitoring of nesting activity and permit physical relocation of nests which are at risk of being eroded or flooded by storms and high tides in order to increase hatch success--the proportion of hatched to unhatched eggs. Relocated nests are moved to an area with higher elevation in order to avoid flooding, but other variables such as increased temperature and decreased moisture are introduced when relocating. For years temperature and moisture have been regarded as the most important factors that contribute to hatch success but these variables are not always directly considered when relocating nests. It is likely that other environmental variables have an effect on hatch success and influence temperature and moisture. The hypothesis that a combination of geological and biological factors better predicts hatch success compared to temperature and/or moisture alone was tested. Secondly the environmental variables which influence temperature, moisture, and likelihood of tidal washover were also examined to evaluate their impact on hatch success. Loggerhead nests on Ossabaw Island, Georgia were monitored throughout incubation; upon incubation completion, hatch success was calculated. For all nests, temperature, moisture, vegetation cover and composition, elevation, dune morphology, and tidal washovers were recorded. These variables were analyzed to assess their individual and combined influences on nest conditions and ultimately on hatch success. In addition to number of washover events, temperature, and moisture, nest vegetation and elevation were important predictors of hatch success in loggerhead sea turtle nests and should be considered when nest relocation is required.
- Published
- 2018
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