Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Tom Akre has been researching wood turtles since attending graduate school at George Mason University (GMU) for a PhD in environmental science public policy. Through his research, Akre continues to assess the challenges to the conservation of the organisms in a rapidly changing landscape.
Through his lectures, Akre focused not only on the conservation and preservation of wood turtles, but also presented issues with global turtle conservation, the causes for the endangerment of over half of the turtle species in the world and general facts on turtles overall.
Akre mentioned that his research was assisted by GMU graduates and Longwood undergraduates, including juniors Elliot Lassiter and Ellery Ruther. "Turtles are a real cause for wonder," said Akre. "In the grand scheme of things, there are probably going to be more records of turtles than there will be of Wall Street," Akre said, later adding, "They are one of the pieces in the puzzle. And not only are they one of the pieces in the puzzle, but they're one of the pieces that have been around longer than many of the other organisms we are aware of."
Stressing the importance of interfacing and interacting with the natural world, Akre said, "As human beings, we're constantly tinkering with our world. We use it. We abuse it. And we obviously need to consider these precautions." Akre noted that a big reason why there is not much concern in the general population over the extinction of turtles is due to how "somewhat commonplace" they are.
"They're more or less disappearing in front of us," he said. The decline of the turtle population around the world is largely due to rapidly changing landscapes caused by habitat loss, unsustainable use through harvesting, disease, climate change, pollution and invasive species.
"For 220 million years, they said, 'Slow and steady has won the race,' but all of that has been changing just in the last couple hundred years, just in the last blink of an eye," said Akre.
Akre listed the characteristics of turtles, including how they are highly divergent, meaning they are not closely related to most other organisms, including other reptiles. Turtles are able to breathe underwater, can live to over 100 years, have delayed sexual maturity and have no decline in reproductive capacity in conjunction with age. Turtles are found on every continent except Antarctica and are found in every habitat except the arctic tundra. Akre noted there are 320 living species of turtles, 12 of which are sea turtles, while the rest are terrestrial or semi-aquatic.
Regarding wood turtles, Akre said they are thought to be "the most intelligent turtles." He joked, "Who knows what that actually means." The characteristics of wood turtles include that they are moderately sized, adaptive to the cold, have delayed sexual maturity, are terrestrial and aquatic and are most active during warm seasons. Additionally, wood turtles have large home ranges and the southernmost distribution is located in Northern Virginia.
"Wood turtles have all of the features that would make them susceptible to decline," said Akre. He said, "They're found in Northern Virginia, which is the most rapidly growing place in the state, and their range is in the Northeast, the most densely populated place in the country."
"They are going to come in contact with people, with roads, with all the things that lead to decline for very slow-moving species," said Akre, noting that a quarter of their range in Virginia has been converted to urban setting.
Through his research, Akre hopes to find ways to best conserve and protect wood turtles as the home range of the species moves to high gradient, which are high elevation environments due to a high level of human encroachment in their habitats.
The next and last Chichester Colloquium Lecture for the spring 2012 semester will be on April 25 and will feature Chair and Associate Professor of Physics and Anatomy Dr. Walter C. "Mike" McDermott from Hampden-Sydney College. It will be the first Chichester Colloquium Lecture to have a speaker who is not a faculty or staff member from Longwood University.
