What is happening to them? Sea turtles are nesting before. They return to their usual nesting places soon, to compensate for the increase in temperatures. This was known to monitoring the nesting of green turtles and winds in Cyprus.
In sea turtles, the temperature determines the biological sex of the young. They hunt more females when it’s hotter, and there are less successful ecclosions when it’s too hot. Turtles also have “native philopathy.” It means that they return to nest in the area where they were born.
Disconnection
The Exeter University determined that by the year 2100 there will be hardly new offspring of Bobas turtles. The only option is to advance your nesting season.
Turtles need to nest 0.5 days per year before to maintain the current sexual proportion. And 0.7 days per year before to avoid failures in the hatching of eggs. Bobas turtles are already nesting in the year. The females that return advance the beginning of the nesting 0.78 days per year since 1993.
Sea turtles are nesting before to maintain more ideal temperatures. Professor Annette Broderick said in a statement: «It is good news. They are responding to high temperatures caused by climate change. They move to the coldest months to nest. But there is no guarantee that they continue doing this. They could begin to be ecologically disconnected between where they look for food and where they reproduce ».
Cold Earth
The study uses 31 years over more than 600 individual green turtles. They nest on the same beach in northern Cyprus. It serves to understand the progress we have seen in the last three decades. He confirmed that they adjust the nesting moment as a function of the sea temperature. They lay 6,47 days before for each 1 ° C increase in the ocean temperature. They calculated that the temperature explained about 30% of the progress. The most experienced females and those who also put before nest.
Dr. Damla Beton, from the Society for Turtle Protection (Spot), added: «Our turtles seem to be dealing with the increase in current temperatures. But it is not clear how long they can do it before Cyprus conditions are no longer adequate. It is possible that there are colder places in the Mediterranean available for them to nest ».
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