Quote:

Climate change is forcing sea turtles to nest earlier each year Green and loggerhead sea turtles have been responding to the warming ocean and planetary temperatures by advancing their nesting and hatching process by nearly one day a year for the last 30 years, an adaptation that will prove vital to their survival.

cont’d later.

Original paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.1809

Article: https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/climate-change-is-forcing-sea-turtles-to-nest-earlier-each-year


Quote:

Sea turtles are responding to climate change by nesting earlier in the year in a move to compensate for rising temperatures, researchers monitoring the breeding habits of green and loggerhead turtles in Cyprus have discovered.

Temperature determines the sex ratio of the hatchlings and extreme temperatures can cause all or nearly all the eggs to fail to hatch. We have had some very hot years lately!


Quote:

Using three decades of data and more recent observations, the research team – comprising those from University of Exeter and the Society for the Protection of Turtles – now predicts that by the year 2100, there will be ‘hardly any new loggerhead turtle offspring produced, unless these turtles counter the higher temperatures by moving their nesting season forward. After placing temperature loggers into nests at night when the females are laying their eggs, and retrieving them once the nest hatches, the researchers estimated that the turtles need to nest 0.5 days per year earlier to maintain the current sex ratio. However, to prevent egg hatching failures, they will need to get started even earlier; some 0.7 days per year earlier. It’s a necessity that – it would seem, as indicated by the data gathered – sea turtles are already attuned to, with loggerhead turtles indeed already nesting earlier in the year, with returning females advancing the start of nesting by 0.78 days per year since 1993. What this means is that, for now at least, the turtles are doing enough to ensure their eggs continue to hatch by nesting earlier in more ideal temperatures.

Wonder if turtles could be encouraged to move to cooler beaches, away from the tropics? Probably could—collect the eggs, incubate them then release on to more suitable beaches? Would the turtles return to that beach to lay their eggs?