Sea turtles, climate change and the 'Germaine Greer Effect'
Climate change may not look like a militant feminist but it's turning sea turtles female and could eventually altogether, according to research published in the journal Global Change Biology.
Researchers at the University of Wales say that they have proof that the temperature of green sea turtle nests on the tiny volcanic island of Ascension has risen by almost half a degree in the last century.
Warm nests might sound cosy to you, but they could prove fatal to sea turtles if conservationists aren't careful, the study warns. 'Warming temperatures might lead to the production of only female hatchlings and so to extinction', says Professor Graeme Hays, the lead author of the study.
Why? Well, just as the fruitiness of a red wine depends on the temperature at which it was fermented, the sex of a sea turtle egg depends on the temperature at which it was incubated.
In fact, when temperatures rise above 29.5C, which is increasingly likely under climate change, nests pretty much produce only female turtles, according to published in the journal Science.
There's hope yet, however. Light coloured beaches, which can be as much as 3C cooler than dark beaches, could save the day, according to the study.
'The continued success of the Ascension Island green turtle rookery', says Professor Hays, 'relies on the production of male hatchlings from the lighter coloured beaches on the island'.
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