How Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in Sea Turtles Aids Against Climate Change
By: Kyanna Gonzalez
A research analysis conducted by Pilar Santidrian Tomillo and James R. Spotila was done to determine if climate change impacts temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) in Sea Turtles and overall determine the adaptive importance of TSD in reptiles. As global temperatures are increasing causing the Earth's climate to change, species around the globe are impacted. In order to combat extinction, organisms are faced with adapting to the ever-so-changing environment.
In "Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in Sea Turtles in the Context of Climate Change: Uncovering the Adaptive Significance", the researchers discuss how climate change could disrupt and create extreme disproportions of sex ratios in reptiles with TSD. For example, crocodiles are a group of reptiles that have TSD where warmer temperatures during incubation result in males and cooler temperatures during incubation results in females. In the case of sea turtles, this is the exact opposite. Cooler temperatures during sea turtle egg incubation results in males and warmer temperatures during this period of development result in female sea turtles. Published online at Wiley Online Libray, the introduction of the study states that most research on climate change's impact on sea turtles eludes to their species being threatened and victim to a female-only species. With this in mind, researchers in the study proposed that temperature-dependent sex determination in sea turtles aids in their survival against climate change. The study concluded that while offspring survival of sea turtles declines in higher temperatures, the sea turtles' TSD that produces females in warmer temperatures increases the fecundity of females. Tying into climate change, the evolutionary TSD for sea turtles combats climate changes and aids in the resilience of the species. Later on in the discussion, the authors theorize that TSD could have historically helped reptiles survive extreme environmental conditions like extreme temperature change.
While I knew that sea turtles have TSD, I did not think about how climate change could cause sea turtles to be a majority of females. This study is important as it discusses how TSD could benefit sea turtles' survival during climate change while other studies on this topic focus on how climate change negatively impacts sea turtles.
You can find the original research study below:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.202000146?saml_referrer
https://doi.org/10.1002/bies.202000146
1 comment:
Super interesting article! I wonder, though, if the possible advantage of producing more females at stressful temperatures can be regarded as an adaptation that evolved via natural selection as opposed to perhaps just a lucky break. What might this idea mean for species that produce more males at higher temperatures?
Post a Comment