1. Impact of marine heatwaves for sea turtle nest temperatures
- Author
-
William J. Chivers, Graeme C. Hays, Charles Sheppard, Nicole Esteban, and Jacques-Olivier Laloë
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Coral bleaching ,Chagos Archipelago ,Oceans and Seas ,Endangered species ,Hadley SST ,Climate change ,Biology ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,03 medical and health sciences ,Animals ,Hatchling ,Research Articles ,030304 developmental biology ,QL ,0303 health sciences ,geography ,geography.geographical_feature_category ,Coral Reefs ,Temperature ,Global Change Biology ,Coral reef ,Anthozoa ,biology.organism_classification ,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) ,temperature-dependent sex determination ,Turtles ,Granger causality testing ,Sea surface temperature ,climate change ,Sea turtle ,Oceanography ,Female ,Marine protected area ,General Agricultural and Biological Sciences - Abstract
There are major concerns about the ecological impact of extreme weather events. In the oceans, marine heatwaves (MHWs) are an increasing threat causing, for example, recent devastation to coral reefs around the world. We show that these impacts extend to adjacent terrestrial systems and could negatively affect the breeding of endangered species. We demonstrate that during an MHW that resulted in major coral bleaching and mortality in a large, remote marine protected area, anomalously warm temperatures also occurred on sea turtle nesting beaches. Granger causality testing showed that variations in sea surface temperature strongly influenced sand temperatures on beaches. We estimate that the warm conditions on both coral reefs and sandy beaches during the MHW were unprecedented in the last 70 years. Model predictions suggest that the most extreme female-biased hatchling sex ratio and the lowest hatchling survival in nests in the last 70 years both occurred during the heatwave. Our work shows that predicted increases in the frequency and intensity of MHWs will likely have growing impacts on sea turtle nesting beaches as well as other terrestrial coastal environments.
- Published
- 2021