Study Projects 90% Of Sea Turtles Female By 2030 - Rising Temps Skew Gender Ratios In Eggs/Embryos

[hatrack]

THINGS are heating up in Australia's northern tropics but that's not good news if you're a sea turtle. New research shows rising temperatures because of climate change will result in the feminisation of turtle populations, making males extremely rare.

James Cook University researcher Mariana Fuentes said in just 20 years almost 90 per cent of turtle hatchings will be female. "Basically by 2030 most of the hatchlings being produced are going to be female," she said. "If you look down 60 or 70 years ahead if there’s no male turtles being produced it could be a big problem."

The research was conducted in the Torres Strait and northern Great Barrier Reef, home to the largest green sea turtle population in the world.

The gender of sea turtles, as with other reptiles, is determined by water temperature.

EDIT

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2009/05/07/41551_local-news.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. Well, there is a positive side to this:

Imagine living to be 300 years old and surrounded by females eager to reproduce.




Now that's a happy turtle.

[tom_paine]

2. 90% is not high enough. We can do better.

Let's get that number up to 100%. Let's leave our SUVs running all night in the yard just to show how VIRILE we all are!

USA #1!!!! USA#1!!!!

:sarcasm:

[phantom power]

3. I've been reading this book...

The Plausibility of Life.

One of the key topics in the book is weak linkages between biological processes. The process of temperature-based sex selection (actually practically every mechanism for sex selection during development) is a weak signaling linkage between highly conserved processes, but the link itself is an extremely target-rich environment for natural selection.

A testable hypothesis is that in a period of climate change, we can expect to see some rapid adaptation in the temperature threshold for sex determination in species like this.

[imdjh]

4. Would it be idiotic to guess that this is a natural response to decrease in population?

If the turtle population is decreasing due to other factors (like development and fishing) wouldn't more females be a good way to get more turtles?

One bull can make a lot of cows pregnant. How does turtle mating work?

[EC]

5. We humans are also producing more females than males

lately...