SREL Reprint #0216
Reproductive
Dynamics of a Turtle (Pseudemys scripta) Population in a Reservoir
Heated Effluent from a Nuclear Reactor
J.
Whitfield Gibbons and J. W. Gibbons
Abstract
Individual yellow-bellied turtles (Pseudemys scripta)
in Par Pond, a thermally populated reservoir on the Savannah River Plant, Aiken,
South Carolina, U.S.A., reach exceedingly large body sizes and maintain
extraordinary juvenile growth rates when compared with turtles of this species
from other populations in the vicinity. Increased water temperatures are not directly responsible for
the observed size and growth differences. Diet
differences resulting from increased productivity at lower trophic levels as a
result of the hot-water effluent may be the cause of the observed growth and
size phenomena. The increased
growth rates and larger body sizes in the Par Pond turtles result in changes in
reproductive rate which may have interesting consequences on the demography of
the population.
SREL Reprint #0216
Gibbons, J.W. 1970. Reproductive dynamics of a turtle (Pseudemys
scripta) population in a reservoir receiving heated
effluent from a nuclear reactor. Canadian Journal of Zoology
48:881-885.
