I love sea turtles! How do you think that climate change will affect sea turtle offspring because their sex is temperature dependent?
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I love sea turtles! How do you think that climate change will affect sea turtle offspring because their sex is temperature dependent?
I think that climate change will likely have a detrimental impact on the species as a whole, not from a skewed ratio of males/females but from reduced viable nesting sites, with their nesting sites consisting of low-incline beachfronts they are likely to be destroyed should sea levels rise as anticipated, areas that aren't affected by rising tides may also be exposed to periods of drought as temperatures increase, precipitation is vital to keeping the nest cool.
If the changes happened slowly and their global population was healthy I have no doubt that they could adapt to a changing environment, they've survived wild temperature swings in the past and even thrived during a time where global temperatures were 10-15C hotter than today.
I fear that as their populations decline due to factors such as fishing by-catch, pollution, high infant mortality and illegal poaching a rapid climatic change would all but embed the final nail in the coffin and a possibly skewed sex ratio would likely pose a major threat to already critically endangered populations.