Homing Behavior and Homeward Orientation Study

Last summer, the Earthwatch volunteers helped me track terrapins to determine whether they display homing behavior, using radio and sonic telemetry. Eight out of the nine terrapins that we tracked all returned home successfully! Sadly, one was recaptured in a crab pot. We also placed terrapins inside a 16-square meter terrestrial arena to determine if they had homeward orientation (placing terrapins inside the arena at night was the most fun). We were able to run 181 terrapins in the arena throughout the summer and have some interesting results... females tend to have a mean homeward direction while males did not. Females may be interested in locating home for nesting locations. This summer, we are going to run more terrapins in the arena and need volunteers to help. If you are interested in seeing some more of my results, a poster I recently made for a symposium is here (click on the link, then go to the file menu of google docs to download the original full version of the poster).

-Nicole

Need summer plans? Join us to save the terps!

Well, it's that time of year again when we start planning for field season! Our first Earthwatch expedition starts on June 12, 2011 and there are a few volunteer spots still available. Check out the links to the right if you're interested in joining us!

For prosperity's sake, here's a snapshot of our staff from last summer. As far as I know, Dr. Avery, Dr. Standora, Dr. Wnek, Jules, Abby, Nicole, Brian, Chris, and I will still be around this summer and we'll be joined by a few new faces.

One of the most common questions that I'm asked is "what do you guys do all winter when you're not in the field"? Well, we certainly stay busy! As anyone who has done an expedition with us knows, we work from dawn to dusk trapping turtles and running experiments during the summer months. The winter months are incredibly important to us because they give us a chance to analyze our data from the summer, write papers, plan new experiments, teach biology/environmental science classes, give presentations on our research, etc., etc., etc. For example, earlier this month, Jules, Abby, and I presented our terrapin research at Drexel University's Research Day and College of Arts and Sciences' Research Day. 

Stay tuned to hear more about our research in the next few days!

Terrapin Hatchling Update

In 2010, we retrieved over 60 terrapin hatchlings from North Sedge Island as part of a head-start program. Since that time, six schools raised hatchlings including: Girard Middle School (PA); Lacey Middle School (NJ); Scotch Plains Elementary School (NJ); Southern Regional High School (NJ); Stafford Intermediate School (NJ) and Paterson Elementary School (NJ). We have released headstarted terrapins back to the Sedge Island Marine Conservation Zone throughout May 2011. Thanks to the students and their teachers for making this a tremendous learning experience!

Congratulations, Dr. Emily Basile!

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, Emily Basile received her Ph.D. today! At 1PM this afternoon, she presented her dissertation, "Persistent Organic Pollutants in Diamondback Terrapin Tissues, Eggs, and Sediments in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey", to the public. Around 2PM, Emily defended her dissertation to her committee. Then at 3PM, Dr. Emily joined the Avery lab, the ecology lab, and the Department of Biology at a party in her honor.

Next week, John Wnek will be defending his dissertation and hopefully earning the title of "Dr.". Don't worry ... I'll keep you updated on his progress!

In other news, Jules, Abby, and I are all in the process of getting ready for field season. Jules has been keeping herself busy trying to determine how she can walk two different beaches for eight hours a day watching for nesting terrapins (hmm ... sounds like she may need some help from Earthwatch volunteers). Abby just got a spectrophotometer so that she can analyze the different color wavelengths of the terrapins for her morphology study this summer. And I have my fingers crossed that this will be my last field season. I still need to expose a whole bunch of terrapins (53 to be exact) to boat engine sounds and I need to make some ambient sound recordings in the bay.

We're going to start unpacking the camp on June 7 and then the first Earthwatch team will join us on June 13. Bring it on, field season ... we're ready to catch some terrapins!

Jules Winters, PhD Candidate

When a student is working towards a PhD, there's one moment that tends to evoke more fear than any other ... the candidacy exam. The candidacy exam at Drexel consists of two parts: a week long written exam and a 3-4 hour oral exam. During the oral exam, the student needs to defend the answers to their written exam and also present/defend their dissertation proposal. Typically, a PhD student attempts to complete their candidacy exam at the end of their second year of study. In exciting news, Jules just passed her candidacy exam on May 5. Since it was also Cinco de Mayo, a bunch of us ecology nerds went out to celebrate Jules' achievement following her exam.

From left to right: Pat (frogs in Bioko Island), Samir (loggerhead sea turtles in Greece), Jen (Samir's fiancee), Jules (PhD Candidate extraordinaire), Me, Steve (freshwater turtles in southeastern PA), Maggie (red colobus in Bioko Island), and Jack (loggerhead sea turtles in Greece).

As far as what this means for the terrapin project in Barnegat Bay, this summer Jules will start collecting "real" data, i.e., the data that she will eventually use to write her dissertation. My understanding is that she'll be looking at terrapin nesting in response to anthropogenic (human-caused) changes in the bay such as bulkheading.

Gulf Coast Oil Spill Threatens Terrapins

By now, everyone has probably heard about the oil spill that occurred off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010. My understanding is that there was an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig which resulted in a massive oil spill. Yesterday, the estimate was that the spill covers a surface area of more than 2,500 square miles. Oil is leaking from the oil well at the rate of 5 to 25 thousand barrels per day. By April 30, the oil had already begun to appear at wildlife refuges on Louisiana's coast. Many species are at risk including shrimp, fish, marine mammals, shore birds, and unfortunately ... even terrapins.

For more information on the oil spill and gulf coast terrapins, check out this link!

Oil Spill Threatens Terrapins

Congratulations Dr. Claire!!!

I'm proud to announce that Claire Sheridan (Coleman) successfully defended her dissertation on April 8, 2010. Congrats, Dr. Claire! Since Dr. Avery's graduate students are rarely all in the same location at the same time, we took the opportunity to pose for a lab photo (From left: John, Abby, Steven, Me, Emily, Jules, Dr. Claire, and Dr. Avery).