Sea Turtles don't adapt well to hotter beaches

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/44612

From: ScienceDaily
Published July 2, 2012 08:11 AM

For eastern Pacific populations of leatherback turtles, the 21st century could be the last. New research suggests that climate change could exacerbate existing threats and nearly wipe out the population. Deaths of turtle eggs and hatchlings in nests buried at hotter, drier beaches are the leading projected cause of the potential climate-related decline, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change by a research team from Drexel University, Princeton University, other institutions and government agencies.


Leatherbacks are the largest species of sea turtles and are critically endangered. Heat-related deaths of turtle eggs and hatchlings in nests before they emerge and enter life at sea was identified as the leading projected cause of climate-related decline in leatherback turtles in the eastern Pacific in a new study. The study suggests that climate change could exacerbate existing threats that have already made leatherbacks critically endangered, and nearly wipe out the eastern Pacific population in the 21st century. (Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast. Used under a Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en): http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwssoutheast/5839996547/in/photostream/)


Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtle species, are among the most critically endangered due to a combination of historical and ongoing threats including egg poaching at nesting beaches and juvenile and adult turtles being caught in fishing operations. The new research on climate dynamics suggests that climate change could impede this population's ability to recover. If actual climate patterns follow projections in the study, the eastern Pacific population of leatherback turtles will decline by 75 percent by the year 2100.

Leatherback turtle births naturally ebb and flow from year to year in response to climate variations, with more hatchlings, and rare pulses of male hatchlings, entering the eastern Pacific Ocean in cooler, rainier years. Female turtles are more likely to return to nesting beaches in Costa Rica to lay eggs in years when they have more jellyfish to eat, and jellyfish in the eastern Pacific are likely more abundant during cooler seasons. Turtle eggs and hatchlings are also more likely to survive in these cooler, rainier seasons associated with the La Niña climate phase, as this research team recently reported in the journal PLoS ONE. In addition, temperature inside the nest affects turtles' sex ratio, with most male hatchlings emerging during cooler, rainier seasons to join the predominantly-female turtle population.

Turtle hatchling via Shutterstock: http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&searchterm=leatherback+turtle&search_group=#id=83529007&src=b9622a399680b90401c497c2375309e3-1-36

Read more at ScienceDaily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120701191511.htm