Florida Now Has Almost Exclusively Female Sea Turtles Hatched There

The gender balance of sea turtles is being impacted by climate change. A disproportionately high number of female sea turtles have hatched in Florida over the past four years as a result of rising temperatures; up to 99 percent of all eggs placed may have resulted in female sea turtles. Regardless, a specialist toldthat climate change is severely straining the endangered species.

The sex of a sea turtle isn't determined at the time of fertilization, unlike many other animals. Instead, the temperature of the ground where the eggs are laid determines whether you will receive a male or a girl. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that they will be male if the temperature stays below 81.86 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature is higher than 88.8, they are female.

Lucy Hawkes, an ecologist from the University of Exeter explained that seven different kinds of sea turtles exist, and as the climate warms, all of them produce more females. She claimed that all of them have extremely feminine biased sex ratios.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea turtle eggs laid in sand that is hotter than 88.8° Fahrenheit (31° Celsius) will hatch into female sea turtles. Bette Zirkelbach, manager of the Turtle Hospital in Marathon explained that the last four summers have been the warmest on record. Since there are no male sea turtles, only female sea turtles are being studied by scientists who are looking at sea turtle eggs and hatchlings.

Sea turtle genetic diversity may become unsustainably low if there are fewer males. However, Hawkesalso said that it probably involves more factors than that. She claimed that the definition of the "ideal" gender balance is ambiguous. Evidence implies that only a few male sea turtles are required to fertilize all of the eggs, as it is typical for a group of sea turtle nests to birth roughly 90% females. Therefore, having a lot of females may be an evolutionary adaptation to grow the population and prevent it from being endangered.

According to some research, even if the eggs are damp, males may still hatch from a heated nest. Whatever the case, there is no doubting that sea turtles are under stress due to climate change. She added that it leads to increased storms, which can quickly destroy thousands of nests that are laying eggs, and sea level rise, which floods the nest and destroys the eggs.

Meanwhile, according to Hawkes, the most important thing we can do in this regardis to restrict development of nesting beaches, which means fewer new hotels, etc., should be constructed behind the beach.