Climate Change Threatens Sea Turtle Sex Ratios, Expert Tells OU Students
Rising temperatures could skew sea turtle hatchling populations towards females, an expert told Osmania University students during a master class on turtle conservation.
Rising temperatures could leave sea turtle populations with increasingly female-biased hatchling populations, raising concerns about their long-term reproductive balance as climate change alters nesting conditions.
The issue was discussed at a master class on genomics, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence in sea turtle conservation organised by Osmania University’s (OU) department of zoology, in collaboration with its office of international affairs and Hyderabad-based FoundersLab, on Monday.
Prof. Anne Ropiquet, reader in evolutionary biology and conservation at Queen Mary University of London, explained how temperature-dependent sex determination affects loggerhead sea turtles. Unlike in humans, the sex of sea turtles is determined by the temperature at which eggs incubate. Warmer conditions generally produce more female hatchlings, while cooler conditions favour males.
Ropiquet discussed experimental findings on how nest depth and the resulting thermal environment can influence hatchling sex ratios. Under certain conditions, deeper nests may favour male hatchlings, offering researchers insights into how nesting conditions affect population survival.
She also discussed the use of satellite-based GPS tracking to study turtle migration, movement and habitat use, helping researchers understand where turtles travel and which areas need protection.
Participants examined another threat to nesting turtles: artificial light near beaches. Bright lights can disorient hatchlings and adult turtles, interfere with their movement towards the sea and reduce their chances of survival. The session was attended by faculty members, research scholars and students from the departments of zoology and botany.