How Does Global Warming Affect Sea Turtles

All over the world there is a subject that has an effect on us all, and that subject has come to be known as climate change, or more commonly global warming. Climate change has a huge impact on Sea Turtles and their nesting grounds. Specifically referring to the Sea Turtle’s ability to reproduce. Especially within the last ten to fifteen years.

The Loggerhead is an endangered species. Between 1997 and 2007, around 70% of their east coast yearly nesting population was lost as a result of shrimp trawling and development in nesting areas. The Loggerhead Turtles habitat in Gnaraloo is vital for their survival. The female loggerhead usually digs her nest at night. She digs her nest with her back flippers, about 18 inches beneath the surface. When she lays her eggs they fall to the bottom of the nest and pack together after she lays the eggs she tops off the nest with sand. The hatchlings will incubate for 60- 80 days. Loggerheads nest on ocean beaches, they lay their eggs, immediately after hatchlings emerge from the nest, they begin a period of frenzied activity. Hatchlings are primarily

Over the years, climate change has affected marine species because it has increased the ocean temperature, causing it to get warmer, which is causing a negative impact to most marine organisms like echinoderms and cnidarians (Quinn, 2016). In many cases, the optimum temperature of growth increased 1-6°C, which created harmful effects on stages of development (Quinn, 2016). In some cases such as the American lobster (Homarus americanus), warming of the ocean had caused smaller body sizes (Le Bris et al., 2016). Even though there is some research that showed that the warm temperature could also benefit the lobster’s population, most of their population has declined in the warmest and southernmost regions of the lobster’s range in places like southern New England and Long Island Sound (Quinn, 2016).

The Red-bellied Cooter is being threatened by both man-made and natural causes. Do to economic growth, areas that used to be a good habitat for these turtles are now being turned into new, buildings like apartments, houses, and stores. In areas where the turtles can live, they are threatened before they have even hatched from their eggs by other predators like raccoons, skunks, or even snapping turtles. Almost all of the eggs in a nest are harmed before they have a chance to hatch. So while humans taking up land takes the Red-bellied Cooters’ homes, their predators take their lives.

Sea Otters as well as many other species are in danger because of Climate Change.The sudden change in climate has disturbed the ocean’s temperature which causes an insufficient amount of food for sea otters which causes the otters to be malnourished and starved. Because of the change in climate there has been a decrease in the amount of harp seals (Foley, 2013) which happens to be the killer whales main prey, because of this the killer whales have now turned to sea otters. Other likely threats to sea otters because of climate change are ocean acidification in the north Pacific, pathogen transport, marine invasive species, biotoxins withdrawn in bivalve prey, and the recurrence and intensity of storm events (Doroff and Burdin, 2015) . Sea otters have a noticeably solid influence on the wealth of kelp through the impact they have on sea urchins, said James A. Estes, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz who was a co-author on Schmitz 's 2014 review and on the original sea otter study. Otters eat urchins. Urchins eat kelp. So in ocean patches where otters are bountiful, urchin populations collapse and kelp tends to thrive (Estes,Cruz and Schmitz,2014). The study, led by Wilmers and published in 2012, found that across the otter 's range the animal could be indirectly at fault for getting rid of as much as 8.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than twice what an average

Loggerhead eggs and hatchlings are a large food source for a variety of terrestrial animals, nearshore predatory fish, and seabirds, providing substantial amounts of energy and nutrients for these species (Wilson et al. 2010). A five or ten year period of loggerhead turtle declines may cause sublethal effects such as decreased growth rates or reproductive output for these predator species and a fifty year period of loggerhead turtle decline may potentially have more severe impacts such as significant declines for local populations that rely on eggs and hatchlings as a food source.

The Graptemys caglei, also known as the Cagle’s Map Turtle, is an endangered turtle species found in San Antonio, Texas and along the Guadalupe River. It identifies easily by the pattern on its shell which resembles an aerial view topography, as well as its spiked shell edges, which are not as sharp as other map turtles of the same genus. Although the Cagle’s Map Turtle has natural predators pose a threat to the individual turtles’ lives, the predators are not a greater threat than habitat disturbances created by humans. Unfortunately, this species suffered a significant drop in population since the mid-1970 through changes in its habitat disallow support of a larger population of the turtles(van Dijk, P. P., 2011).

These are persons in their developmental stages. Reaching out at the right moment in developmental years is crucial to impressing sustainability upon our youth. These impressions are lifelong necessities that will extend the livelihood of our environment and more specifically, sea turtles. According to a recent finding in the U.S. National Library of Medicine,

Sea turtle hatchlings are now having trouble finding their way to the sea because of all the lights from buildings that are built on the coast. They get disoriented when they are born and will wander in the wrong way away from the sea. This leads them to predators that live inland or will even cause the turtle to become dehydrated and die. Humans are also building coastal armoring that is blocking female turtles from reaching a suitable nesting habitat. This is a severe problem in Florida where they have many coastal rock elevations and sand bags. Where all this beach development is occurring thousands of sea turtles are trying to nest. Beach dredging is also having a direct effect on sea turtle's trying to nest. If the sand is too impacted or is drastically different from native beach sediment, the mother will have trouble creating the

Loggerhead sea turtles are one of the most abundant species of the marine life in the U.S. oceans but the population is currently decreasing due to pollution increase and getting caught in bycatch. The term bycatch is when shrimp fishermen have their nets out and the animal ( in this case a loggerhead sea turtle) gets caught in the net and eventually killing the sea turtle . ((( Add More))))

To warm up, they bask in the sun. In winter, all reptiles in our area must hibernate to survive the cold.” This explains the uncommon sighting of most turtles this time of the season. But as soon as the weather warms up, the turtles start to come out to bask for warmth. When we were on our class trip to Prospect Park in Brooklyn, we encountered a dead turtle. The lifeless shell was flipped over and cracked. It almost appeared as it was frozen. As discussed as a class, what we were observing was in fact a turtle trying to bask in the sun on a warm spring day and the weather turn for the worst the following day, leaving the turtle to suffer. Another example of a turtle encounter was last summer in central park. On a warm sunny day, I went on a boat ride in the central park pond. On the nearby rocks, there were numerous turtles basking in the sun and cooled off by diving into the water. With my fascination of turtles, I made the person rowing with me row closer to get an up close look. Some people may wonder how these turtles get here? Most of the time, they are brought into an area as pets and then released by owners. This causes stress on the animal and its

Turtles are one of the most imperiled groups of animals on the planet. Habitat loss is probably their biggest threat; when a wetland is drained, a field paved over, or a nesting beach overrun with condominiums, there is simply no space left for turtles. But harvesting too many for food has played a key role in driving down turtle

The climate change has caused not only waters to raise in temperature, but also in the sea level; this is having a major negative effect on sea turtles. When the female sea turtles lay their eggs and bury them in the sand, the rising waters make the eggs’ nest a dangerous place to be, resulting in even lower amounts of turtles hatched. Also, the rising temperatures effects the natural eggs’ incubation temperature of 34°C higher, which effects the sex of the turtle. Loggerhead turtles in Florida are ninety percent female due to this factor. If the temperature continues to rise, there may be no males left at all.

Reptilian populations are under constant scrutiny from the environment. The reptilian populations rely on close to equal sex ratios for their species to thrive. With the changing climate more and more reptiles are at risk. This is because global warming may influence health, spatial distribution, growth, and reproductive output (Simoncini 2014). Along with that, the change in temperature will affect the incubation temperature, embryonic development, sex ratios, and hatchling success (Simoncini 2014). Not only that, but global change may result in a stronger sex ratio bias, which could lead to extinction of TSD reptiles (Hulin et al 2009). An all-male or all-female biased population adds more stress on a population to survive. Scientists are concerned populations will dwindle or possibly become extinct if reptilian species cannot adapt to climate change. Global warming will result in increased atmospheric temperature in a short time scale and may modify several life history traits in populations (Hulin et al 2009). Reptilian species may not have the time to physically adapt to the environmental changes. Species could overcome climate change by modification of nesting phenology or behavior (Hulin et al 2009). Some temperature dependent sex determined species may be able to compensate by nesting in cooler areas (Refsnider 2012). Not only will temperature change affect sex ratios, but it can alter offspring phenotypes and performance. A study was conducted to observe the effect

Global warming is a major problem when providing a suitable habitat and lifestyle for ample marine life. With sea levels rising there are consequences to plant life in coastal wetlands that can not handle the amount of water being provided. The wetlands are important in their job to protect the species they contain and for stabilizing coastlines. Storms are increasing in magnitude and severity, causing the transport of nutrients to marine life to be disturbed. As shores move further inland animals will have to move and adapt, history has shown how this can decrease populations. In the future both rare and abundant species could become locally extinct, with rare species on the verge of becoming totally extinct.