气候变化领域集成服务门户

The eastern snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is widely distributed throughout the eastern and central US and is a useful model organism to study land-use impacts on water quality. We compared the reproductive condition of turtles from a pond impacted by runoff from land applied with animal manure from a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) relative to animals from a control pond. Turtles from the CAFO site were heavier and had higher plasma concentrations of vitellogenin (VTG, meani +/- SE; females; 859 +/- 115 vs. 401 +/- 127 ng/mL from controls) and testosterone (T, males; 39 +/- 7.0 vs. 3.8 +/- 6.9 ng/mL from controls). No VTG was detected in males. Body mass was positively con-elated with VTG and T. Our results suggest that nutrient pollution of the CAFO pond indirectly resulted in higher plasma VTG in females and T in males because of an increase in body mass. The population-level consequences of these effects are not clear, but could result in females producing larger clutches.