Welcome to the technical sessions schedule for the 2015 SEAFWA Annual Meeting.
NEW THIS YEAR! The technical schedule is capable of being sorted by date (i.e, Monday, Nov. 2), track (i.e. Wildlife Technical Sessions), or session (i.e. Wildlife Session #1). You can also search for a presentation title (i.e. Changing Landscapes by Coalition), key term (i.e. striped bass), or presenter last name (i.e. Weaver). The sort and search functions can be found on the navigation panel on the right side of this page. If you hover over the "Schedule" button, you’ll also see different schedule view options (i.e. Grid or Simple). Try selecting each of them to see which view you prefer.
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Katherine E. Edwards, Jeanne C. Jones, David L. Evans, Scott D. Roberts – Mississippi State University; Alexis Londo, The Ohio State University; Scott A. Tweddale, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center; Zhaofei Fan, Mississippi State University
Since federal listing of western populations of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), tortoise population recovery and habitat restoration efforts have been implemented at Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Site, Mississippi. We studied plant community and edaphic features around tortoise burrows and at non-occupied locations in 2007. We investigated relationships between burrow presence and habitat characteristics through decision tree and logistic regression analyses. Burrow occurrence was positively related to stem counts of woody plants and species richness of native legumes and negatively related to overstory canopy coverage, and maximum tree height. Cross-validation procedures predicted presence of burrows for 91% of observed outcomes. Tortoise burrows were most often found on side slopes of sand ridges where overstory canopy coverage was < 60% and conditions were adequate for burrowing, nesting, basking, and establishment of food plants. Our study sites exhibited woody plant coverage > 45% at ground and midstory levels and < 50% coverage of herbaceous plants. Advancement of these conditions over time can produce suboptimal habitat quality yet tortoises may continue to utilize home burrows due to burrow site fidelity, interspersion of desirable food plants, and suitable soils for burrowing. Advancing shrub and sapling cover on our study sites were potentially related to reduced fire return intervals and burning bans associated with forest damage from 2005 landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Design and interpretation of tortoise habitat studies should consider many factors, including edaphic and vegetation conditions, history of habitat management, temporal effects on vegetation succession, activity status of burrow, and burrow site fidelity.
