Rising temperatures could be bad news for male loggerhead turtles

Rising global temperatures may be blamed for fewer male loggerhead turtles being born, which could lead to a gender imbalance that puts increased pressure on this already endangered species.

Florida State University’s Mariana Fuentes and a team of Brazilian researchers set out to study how temperatures were impacting Brazilian loggerhead turtles – at a time when 2015 marked the second year running where temperatures reached a record high. It was already established that the sex of marine turtle hatchlings was influenced by incubating temperatures, with warmer temperatures producing a higher number of female hatchlings.

A similar trend has been found with some crocodiles.
“We’re concerned we’re going to have a feminization of marine turtles,” Fuentes, a co-author on a study of the findings in Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, said in a statement. “This study came from the need to understand the current sex ratio being produced at loggerhead nesting grounds to establish baseline parameters as climate change progresses and to identify beaches that produce a higher proportion of males.”

The finding is the latest evidence that global warming is already taking a toll the natural world. Not only are plants and animals shifting their ranges to stay ahead of the rising temperatures, plants are blooming earlier in the spring and some species are even changing biologically – including some lizards that change sex to beat the heat.