Sea Turtles: Climate Change Indicators?

Dr. Lucy Hawkes, who is coordinating an initiative to develop adaptation strategies for climate change impacts to turtles, believes that “turtles are a really good way to study climate change because they depend on healthy beaches as well as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs and deep ocean ecosystems to live.”

Recently the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that global warming will cause devastating changes in the environment, including an increase in severe storms and rising sea levels.  This could cause much damage, as we have seen in recent storms, to the people who live in coastal regions where sea levels are presently low.  By studying turtles and their habitat, scientists can get an idea of how climate change will affect them. Some of the aspects of the research will include:

•  Nesting site temperatures
• Morphology and resilience on the beach
• Dynamics of water tables, mangrove, sea grass beds, coral reefs, ocean ecosystems and currents

Since the Hawksbill Sea Turtle has not always been treated well in the Caribbean, the researchers are hoping the public will see the importance of these creatures as climate change indicators and learn to respect them.  Thus the project, which hopes to have some answers by 2010, will hopefully have a part in conserving the sea turtles as well as gain a better understanding of the effects of climate change in coastal regions .

 Source:  www.panda.org