Literaturdatenbank
Literaturdatenbank |
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Rennie, B. A., Doody, J. S., & Osborne, W. S. (2003). Ecology of long-necked turtles, chelodina longicollis, in a new ecosystem: rice farms. Abstracts ASIH Meeting 2003.
Added by: Admin (14 Aug 2008 20:36:26 UTC) |
| Resource type: Journal Article BibTeX citation key: Rennie2003 View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: Australien = Australia, Chelidae, Chelodina, Chelodina longicollis, Habitat = habitat, Schildkröten = turtles + tortoises Creators: Doody, Osborne, Rennie Collection: Abstracts ASIH Meeting 2003 |
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| Abstract |
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Given that over 70% of the world's terrestrial landscape has been modified for agriculture, much of the world's remaining biodiversity exists within agroecosystems. We studied the movements, habitat use, and diet of long-necked turtles (Chelodina longicollis) in a rice agroecosystem in southeastern Australia during 2001-2002. The turtles' pattern of habitat use supported our hypothesis that the rice agroecosystem serves as a surrogate for natural wetlands for C. longicollis. Turtles spent much of the year in the more permanent irrigation channels, but quickly moved (over land or by feeder channels) into seasonally-available flooded rice paddies, where they remained for up to six months. However, our prey sampling found no evidence for higher richness and abundance of prey in rice paddies, although the greater dispersion promoted by rice paddies may translate into higher prey productivity per turtle. Our diet data indicate that C. longicollis became more selective as prey availability increased, refuting past inferences to the generalistic dietary habits of the species, but in accordance with optimal foraging theory.
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