Where Have All the Turtles Gone, and Why Does It Matter?

By J. Lovich, Joshua R. Ennen, M. Agha, J. Gibbons. BioScience, 2018

349 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Of the 356 species of turtles worldwide, approximately 61% are threatened or already extinct. Turtles are among the most threatened of the major groups of vertebrates, in general, more so than birds, mammals, fishes or even the much besieged amphibians. Reasons for the dire situation of turtles worldwide include the familiar list of impacts to other species including habitat destruction, unsustainable overexploitation for pets and food, and climate change (many turtles have environmental sex determination). Two notable characteristics of pre-Anthropocene turtles were their massive population sizes and correspondingly high biomasses, the latter among the highest values (over 855 kilograms per hectare) ever reported for animals. As a result of their numerical dominance, turtles have played important roles as significant bioturbators of soils, infaunal miners of sea floors, dispersers and germination enhancers of seeds, nutrient cyclers, and consumers. The collapse of turtle populations on a global scale has greatly diminished their ecological roles.

Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/367b22cfb9206a7cbcd0f6930f22daa77f15bd44

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Germán Forero-Medina
2. P. Pritchard
3. S. Platt
4. U. Fritz
5. R. Mittermeier
6. L. Luiselli
7. M. B. Thompson

In Global and Planetary Change

1. P. Pritchard
2. S. Platt
3. U. Fritz
4. R. Spencer
5. R. Mittermeier
6. A. Bertolero
7. I. Das

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. S. Platt
2. U. Fritz
3. R. Spencer
4. R. Mittermeier
5. I. Das
6. L. Luiselli
7. M. B. Thompson

Citations in the corpus

• Global Conservation Status of Turtles and Tortoises (Order Testudines) (2018, background): “As a result of all these impacts and the resultant decreasing populations, the important ecological roles that turtles and tortoises normally fulfill in their habitats and ecosystems have suffered dramatically (Lovich et al. 2018).”