9th Triennial Workshop on the Ecology, Status, and Conservation of Diamondback Terrapins

October 28-30, 2022

Athens, GA

We are excited to announce the 9th DTWG Triennial Workshop and to invite you to join us in Athens, GA for a great weekend talking terrapins, reconnecting with old friends, making new friends, and building the collaborations needed to restore and sustain wild terrapin populations and their coastal habitats.

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The DTWG community has grown steadily since the inaugural Workshop at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory in 1994.  The 1994 Workshop was convened in response to growing concern about declining terrapin populations, with the goals of identifying threats to terrapin populations and producing recommendations for management agencies.  The major findings and recommendations compiled from the 1994 Workshop have served as a springboard for scientific research and conservation actions that continue today. 

 

While a great deal of progress has been made over the past 25 years, the principal threats to terrapins have not been fully mitigated, additional management strategies must be developed and evaluated, and the adoption and implementation of sound conservation practices are needed. We still have work to do. This 9th Workshop renews our commitment to improve our knowledge of terrapin ecology and management, build new collaborations, and chart future initiatives toward recovering and sustaining wild terrapin populations and the marshes they inhabit. We look forward to a great meeting!

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About Athens, GA.

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Athens, GA is affectionately known as the "Classic City" and often treated as a much smaller sister city to Austin, TX and Madison, WI. Athens is famous for its music scene and being home to bands such as REM, the B-52s, Drive-by-Truckers, Widespread Panic, Cracker, and many more. It is also home to the University or Georgia, which is the oldest publicly chartered institution of higher education in the U.S. Athens has a great food scene and is home to many [arguably too many] award winning craft breweries including Creature Comforts, Akademia, Southern Brewing Company, Athentic Brewing, and ... of course ... is the home of the legendary Terrapin Beer Co. We look forward to providing you with some swag and an opportunity to share some of our great food and beverages. It will be a priority of our Workshop to use and showcase local businesses during your visit. https://www.visitathensga.com

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Flinchum's Pheonix

The main venue for our Workshop will be Flinchum's Phoenix (650 Phoenix Road, Athens, GA 30605) located in the Whitehall Forest just 4 miles from the University of Georgia campus and downtown Athens. Flinchum's is operated by the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. The venue has a spacious upstairs meeting room for our presentations and social events, an additional downstairs room for the poster presentations, decks and a gazebo perched in the canopy for breaks and casual conversations, and there are trails down to the Middle Oconee river if you need to stretch your legs.

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Accommodations

Athens has lots to offer in terms of affordable lodging for the Workshop and we aim to make lodging options as flexible as possible for participants. We deliberate chose a weekend when there is no home football game, which should create many hotel and AirBnB options at affordable rates.

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There are blocks of rooms at two hotels, the Hilton Garden Inn or SpringHill Suites, right in downtown Athens. Rooms are being held under the block name "Diamondback Terrapin Working Group".

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In addition to these and other hotels in the area, Athens has a rich AirBnB community. If you plan to have your own car, you can find a wide range of options. If you plan on using the shuttles we provide, we recommend that you look for an AirBnB reasonable close to campus or downtown Athens. If you have questions on good locations for an AirBnB, you can contact jcmaerz@uga.edu

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To assist participants, we have created an place on your Workshop registration where you indicate whether you would like assistance identifying a roommate or roommates to share a hotel room or AirBnB.

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We will provide free shuttles that will run Workshop registrants between Flinchum's Phoenix, downtown Athens, Five-Points, and other in-town areas.

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Getting to Athens

Athens is located in northeast Georgia about 1 hour east of north Atlanta. Athens is about a 3 hour drive from Charlotte, NC, 4.5 hours from Charleston, SC, 5.5 hours from Wilmington, NC or Jacksonville, FL, 6 hours  from Mobile, AL, 11.5 hours from Cape May, NJ, 12.5 hours from Jamaica Bay, NY, 15 hours from Corpus Christi, TX, and 16 hours from Cape Cod, MA.

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The closest airport with easy shuttle access is Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. Hartsfield-Jackson Airport is about a 70 mile drive (1.5 hrs) to Athens.

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To get from the airport, there are multiple rental car services or you can arrange a one-way or round trip shuttle. We recommend two shuttle services.

 

Grizzly Delivery 706.352.3638. Grizzly Delivery is a local shuttle and delivery and minority-owned business owned and operated by Wesley Chenoweth. Wesley is a wonderful person and many UGA faculty use his services when traveling to the airport.

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Groome Transportation is a regional shuttle service that offers frequent trips direct from Hartsfield-Jackson Airport to several locations within Athens.

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Getting around Athens

As stated previously, we will provide free shuttle vans to transport registrants between Flinchum's Phoenix and areas near downtown Athens. Uber and Lyft are also available in Athens at a typical ride costs about $7.50. Athens Transit and the University of Georgia also offer free buses that run around town and campus and should be accessible to most locations of interest.

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Workshop Details and Registration

A full draft agenda will be available and posted soon. For your travel planning purposes, the Workshop will run from 3:30 PM Friday, October 28 through an optional tour from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM on Sunday, October 30. Friday's events will include a business meeting for the DTWG Officers and Board Members from 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM followed by our kick-off social from 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM. Presentations will begin at 8:00 AM Saturday morning, October 29, the poster session, awards presentations, and dinner will be the evening of Saturday, October 29, and the conclusion of presentations and working group sessions will be at 12:00 PM on Sunday October 30. There will be an optional tour of the Terrapin Beer Co. on Sunday afternoon from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM.

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Registration costs for this Workshop cover your workshop participation and dinner at the Friday night social; breakfast, lunch, dinner, and beverages for Saturday; and breakfast and an optional tour of Terrapin Beer Company on Sunday. Your registration also grants you use of the free local shuttle van services during the Workshop.

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DTWG membership is not required to participate in the Workshop, but we highly encourage membership. For more information and to become a DTWG supporting member, please visit https://www.dtwg.org/become-a-member.

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Registration costs area as follows. Early bird registration closes at 11:59 PM on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

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 Click here to register for the Workshop 

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You can modify your registration including abstracts until September 30, 2022.

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Student Travel Awards: As part of the registration process students can apply for student travel awards to offset their registration cost.

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Oral and Poster Presentations

A key component of the Workshop is the sharing of information and ideas. We invite individual to share their work (research, management, education, advocacy, regulation, community building, etc...). We have several options for participants: an oral presentation or a poster presentation.

 

Oral presentations will be either 15 minute (12-13 minute talk with 2-3 minutes for questions) or speed talks (5 minutes with a Q&A for all presenters at the end of the session). We do not know the number of 15 and 5 minute talks. We will make this determination to accommodate as many participants as we can. You can indicate if you are willing to present a 15 minute or 5 minute speed talk.

 

Posters will be hung at the start of the conference and available for viewing and discussion during the entire workshop. Poster presentations will be part of the social event on Saturday, October 29. IMPORTANT: The format size for posters is a maximum of 4 ft X 4 ft. That's right! Try a poster that is 4 ft tall by 3 feet wide or, be square! Posters larger than 4 ft wide or tall will not be displayed. The poster dimensions are to maximize the number of posters we can accommodate and to encourage people to be creative and efficient with information. Break away from that stale old dense poster format. Have some fun. Here is a link to a Pinterest page with lots of ideas for vertical or square poster formats: https://www.pinterest.at/tzesire/conference-posters-design/

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You will select whether you want to present and the types of presentation formats that you will consider as part of your registration. You will also upload your abstract as part of the registration process. You can modify your abstract submission and registration until September 30, 2022.

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Abstract Submission

Abstracts for posters or oral presentations must be received by 11:59 PM on Thursday, September 1, 2022. Abstracts must be 300 words or less (excluding the title, author names and affiliations, and key words). A sample Abstract is included below. Please attach abstracts as a Word document to your abstract registration. Please label the file as the last name of the first presenter and then "_2022_DTWG_Abstract". (e.g., Smith_2022_DTWG_Abstract).

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SAMPLE ABSTRACT

 

TITLE: Effects of Salinity on Hatchling Diamond-Backed Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) Growth, Behavior, and Stress Physiology 

 

AUTHORS: Elizabeth A. Ashley (1,2), Andrew K. Davis (2), Vanessa K. Terrell (1), Connor Lake (1), Cady Carden (1), Lauren Head (1), Rebacca Choe (2), and John C. Maerz (1)

(1) Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA;

(2) Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, 140 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA

 

ABSTRACT: Diamond-backed terrapins inhabit coastal salt marshes along the eastern and Gulf coasts of North America. Terrapins are adapted to intermediate salinities yet frequently face saltwater-inundated marsh habitat exceeding 25 ppt (or grams/kilogram). We investigated the effect of salinity on the growth of hatchling terrapins and on their compensatory responses to salinity stress. We randomly assigned 30 terrapin hatchlings each to one of five salinity treatments (1, 5, 10, 20, or 35 ppt). Over 75 d, we regularly monitored behavior, appetite, and changes in growth; and calculated ratios of heterophils to lymphocytes (H:L ratio) to assess responses to prolonged salinity stress. Consistent with prior studies, chronic exposure to high salinity significantly reduced hatchling growth. Hatchlings in 20-ppt and 35-ppt salinities exhibited appetite suppression and saltwater avoidance and were more likely to show freshwater-seeking behaviors. H:L ratios were higher among hatchlings in 20- and 35-ppt salinities, consistent with a corticosterone-driven stress response to sustained high-salinity exposure, which may play a role in limiting growth. Our findings suggest hatchling growth and distribution among local habitats will vary spatially depending on habitat salinity and freshwater accessibility. The growth-limiting effects of chronically high salinity or limited access to freshwater could therefore increase hatchling mortality and be an important driver of spatial variation in terrapin demography and abundance. However, when freshwater sources are available, compensatory behaviors might reduce growth-limiting effects. Terrapin recruitment is likely to be impacted as rising sea levels, increased human water use, land development, and other anthropogenic changes alter freshwater inputs to coastal marshes. 

 

KEY WORDS: Climate change; H:L ratio; Salt marsh; Sea level rise 

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Student Presentation Awards

As part of your registration and abstract submission, student members who are presenting can select whether they want to be considered for the oral or poster student presentation award.

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Accessibility and Inclusivity

The DTWG and your Workshop hosts are committed to a fully inclusive and accessible workshop. Facilities for all events are wheelchair accessible. Shuttles will be available to transport participants between hotels and the conference venue and special transportation can be arranged for participants who need assistance accessing other venues. If you have any questions related to accessibility or inclusion for this Workshop, please provide that information in the following sections or email jcmaerz@uga.edu

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In addition to student travel grants, it is the goal of the Workshop hosts to maximize accessibility and inclusion at the Workshop. During your registration, you indicate any accessibility needs including food preferences and needs, whether you would like assistance in identifying potential roommates to share lodging costs, and whether you need assistance setting up childcare while attend the workshop. While we currently cannot provide subsidized lodging costs or childcare costs, we are happy to try and assist with these matters. If there are any accessibility issues we have not considered, please contact your meeting host at jcmaerz@uga.edu

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Workshop Code of Conduct

The DTWG is committed to providing a welcoming, safe, and productive environment for all Workshop participants. All participants including but not limited to attendees, speakers, volunteers, exhibitors, sponsors, service providers, and others are expected to abide by this Workshop Code of Conduct. This Code of Conduct is modeled after the Ecological Society of America’s and SEPARC’s codes of conduct.

 

Expected Behavior

• Treat all participants with respect and consideration, valuing a diversity of views and opinions.

• Be considerate, respectful, and collaborative.

• Communicate openly with respect for others, critiquing ideas rather than individuals.

• Avoid personal attacks directed toward others.

• Be mindful of your surroundings and of your fellow participants, staff, vendors, and volunteers.

• Respect the rules, policies, and property of the meeting venues.

• Adhere to State and Federal laws.

 

Unacceptable Behavior

• Harassment, intimidation, or discrimination in any form.

• Physical or verbal abuse.

• Disruption of talks or conversations at oral or poster sessions.

 

• Examples of unacceptable behavior include but are not limited to …

• verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, or national origin;

• inappropriate nudity or sexual images in public spaces or presentations;

• intentional or unintentional vandalism of facilities or other persons’ property stemming from careless or inappropriate behavior;

• threatening or stalking.

 

Consequences

Anyone requested to stop unacceptable behavior is expected to comply immediately. Workshop hosts, co-chairs, or security may take action deemed necessary and appropriate including immediate removal from the Workshop without warning or refund. DTWG reserves the right to prohibit attendance at future Workshops or participation in DTWG programs or events.

 

Reporting of Unacceptable Behavior

If you are the subject or target of unacceptable behavior or have witnessed any such behavior, please immediately notify a DTWG co-chair or Workshop host. You may contact a co-chair or Workshop host in person or by emailing dtwgcoms@gmail.com. Anyone experiencing or witnessing behavior that constitutes an immediate or serious threat to public safety is advised to contact venue security or local police.