Telemetry in movement ecology of aquatic and semi-aquatic turtles in world freshwater ecoregions: a systematic review

Abstract

The improvement of techniques and analyses to understand the movement of freshwater turtles has helped managers in decision-making and the establishment of management strategies for these animals, which suffer numerous threats. We analyzed the available scientific literature on the use of telemetry in the study of the movement ecology of freshwater turtles, seeking to assess the most commonly used approaches. To this end, we carried out a systematic review of articles published until December 2022 using the PRISMA protocol. We found 104 articles published between 1980 and 2022, with a clear increase in the number of publications in later years. We found publications in 40 journals with 295 authors, 150 institutions and 261 keywords. Three countries had major contributions, and we found studies with 50 species, the most recurrent being Emydoidea blandingii and Glyptemys insculpta. The most commonly used technique to study turtle movement was radiotelemetry. The use of Minimum Convex Polygon – MCP and Kernel Density Estimation – KDE was present in 56% of the studies in the last 10 years, and the evaluation of the home range of the species was the most recurrent type of study. The studies covered 33 freshwater ecoregions, and although most studies were carried out in anthropized areas, covering only 16.2% of all endangered freshwater turtle species and 11.4% of all threatened by international trade, the conservation approach has been increasingly recurrent. Our results highlight trends and gaps in the study of the ecology of freshwater turtle movements and highlight the importance of telemetry as an essential tool for species conservation.

Highlights

This study reviews 104 articles on telemetry in aquatic turtles, highlighting the predominant use of radiotelemetry. It reveals a focus on anthropized areas and significant gaps, with only 16.2% of endangered species studied. The research underlines the importance of telemetry in turtle ecology conservation. Conservation efforts are growing, despite existing gaps.”

Key Words:

• scienciometry
• chelonians
• migration
• home range
• tracking

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz and the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação da Biodiversidade. We also thank the Universidade Federal do Tocantins. We are grateful to Norte Energia S.A. for all the support during this study. This study was part of M.V. Ribeiro doctoral thesis, and we thank CAPES [process number 88887.608630/2021-00] for granting scholarships to the first author and CNPq for the productivity grant awarded to the last author [process number 310464/2020-0].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTION

M.V. Ribeiro played a multifaceted role, contributing significantly to experimental design, data collection, data analysis, and writing the manuscript. R.L. da Silva participated in the contributions on ecology and E.A.P. dos Santos participated with his knowledge in analyzes using telemetry and both contributed to the writing process. A.d.S. Cruz helped with the data search and A. Malvasio focused on discussions about chelonians and were fundamental in preparing the manuscript. M. Solé dedicated his efforts to analyzing the data, enriching the manuscript with careful interpretations. A. Schiavetti took on a leadership role, supervising the project, contributing to the experimental design, and providing substantial contributions in writing and editing the manuscript.

Supplemental data

Supplemental Data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2024.2343469

Additional information

Funding

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001.