image from First Coast News
Both of these articles were published by smaller news companies, with the general population of Florida coasts as their intended audience. The St Augustine Record's article quoted some biologists and conservationists, and the First Coast News has a short video of interviews.
Leatherback sea turtles have begun nesting in the St Augustine, Florida region, but they normally do not begin until May, thus breaking the record of the earliest nesting season (record keeping in Florida began in 1987). According to a conservationist in the article, the "normal early" nesting is in April.
Although the temperatures in Florida have been 10 degrees above normal, a wildlife biologist said that their local temperatures are not the reason for the early nesting. He said that the determining factor for the leatherbacks was the water temperature wherever they were foraging before they migrated to Florida for nesting. It would have been that temperature that cued them to move on to Florida. Also, leatherbacks are the only sea turtles that have begun this early nesting; time will reveal if other sea turtles follow this pattern this year.
As it is still early in the season, I think it will be interesting if the warmer temperatures will drastically affect the migrating pattern of other species. Furthermore, turtles have temperature dependent sex determination, and there is speculation that a long trend of warmer weather will alter the male:female ratio of turtles.
Image here
1 comment:
Very interesting, and a little freaky that the water temperature is so much warmer that they'd nest a month earlier. Perhaps this is an adaptive response, and will allow a 50:50 sex ratio. I wonder, though, if there may be other consequences when the young hatch so much earlier than normal.
Post a Comment