It was very interesting seeing an article relating to what
we have recently been learning with regard to reptile reproduction and the
specific question of why climate change is a concern for turtle reproduction.
Additionally, having the previous knowledge that sea turtles have temperature
dependent sex determination, assisted in a deeper level of understanding while
reading this article since it was written for the common layperson.
The article itself noted that there is a significant shift
occurring in the sex ratio of sea turtles where the hatchlings are resulting in
more females than males. In fact, over the past few years some observations in
Florida have resulted in 95% of hatchlings being females. At Florida Atlantic University they are studying
sea turtles by keeping track of the environmental temperatures and a specific
protein found only on female cells in the hopes of coming up with a way to
predict the sex of the turtles before they hatch so that they can determine the
sex ratio for each new generation and learn how to best protect them. This begs
the question if climate change could be the reason behind this trend. Since sex
is not determined by chromosomes and rather by the environment in which the
turtles reside, it results in females developing in warmer temperatures and
males developing in cooler temperatures. With this knowledge it is safe to say
that climate change could hurt turtle populations but it is still unknown if it
will have a significant impact on sea turtles as a whole. It was noted that additional
studies would be needed to figure out what a “healthy” sex ratio would be and
to understand the possible long-term effects.
Since this article is written for those with little previous
knowledge, the writing did not go too deeply into the biological process. That
being said, I wish the author would have included the name of the species that
was studied at the University and added a little more detail about the studies
in general. However, I do think the article was successful at relating to its
target audience by making the public aware of the direct effects that
temperature has on other living things and how, if climate change continues,
that this could cause an additional problem in reproduction for an already
endangered group of sea turtle species.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/04/climate-change-could-be-responsible-for-too-many-f.html
2 comments:
We’ve covered this topic, temperature sex-determination, within reptiles and it’s cool but at the same time unsettling to witness the consequences of an impactful hormonal process. I wished they mentioned which turtle they observed as well. The one in the picture looks like a Green Sea Turtle. It’s difficult to get a public reaction to something that we humans have little contact with. Sea turtles maintain jellyfish and coral reef populations as well as dune structure and the plant diversity within them.
Very interesting - and concerning - research. It would be very interesting to see a comparison with populations further north, to study the correlation with temperature more closely.
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