Turtle Talk
  • Home
  • Loggerhead Sea Turtle
  • What you can do
  • Symbolic Adoption Program
  • YouTube
  • DNA Study

Follow along to read the up to date sea turtle nesting info!

Final Turtle Count for 2022 Season - Nests: 351 False Crawls: 236
2023 - stay tuned.

Virtual Sea Turtle Conferences!

3/31/2022

0 Comments

 
PictureMy avatar for the ISTS virtual conference!
This past week was a week of informative and inspiring turtles talks! I had the opportunity to attend the Wider Caribbean Sea Turtle Conservation Network (WIDECAST) conference and then attended the International Sea Turtle Symposium (ISTS). It was a week filled with new sea turtle research and initiatives being done around the world.

The ISTS was held virtually from Australia. Next year it is hopefully to be held in-person again in Cartagena, Colombia. It was nice to still be able to connect virtually but a trip to Cartagena next year sounds appealing! I think travelling is on everyone's mind now that things are starting to feel normal again.

I am feeling very inspired and motivated as we get closer and closer to the beginning of our nesting season!

0 Comments

I am back at Edisto Beach State Park!

3/22/2022

0 Comments

 
Hello fellow turtle enthusiasts and blog readers!

I am excited to share that I am back for the 2022 nesting season at Edisto Beach State Park. This will be my 7th year leading the program as the Sea Turtle Specialist and my 10th year since my first sea turtle internship (which was here at the park!). I am looking forward to getting things organized for the upcoming nesting season. Will it be another record year? Here's hoping!

Over the next month, I will be sorting supplies, working on new projects, prepping for our upcoming nest adoptions, attending sea turtle conferences, installing shorebird fencing and so much more! It will be a busy month and then May will be here before we know it. We are looking forward to interviewing and hiring our summer interns. Stay tuned to the blog to follow along for our 2022 sea turtle nesting season!
Picture
0 Comments

Influence of Sand Temperature on Sea Turtle Hatchlings

3/21/2022

2 Comments

 
​If you are reading this, it means you have seen one of the labelled posts on Edisto Beach State Park! Thanks for scanning the QR code to learn more about it! This post is used as a marker for one of the buried temperature data loggers. Prior to the start of the 2022 Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) sea turtle nesting season, we installed sand temperature loggers in randomized locations along our 1.5-mile stretch of beach. We chose locations just above the Spring high tide line and locations closer to the dunes, where sea turtle nesting is most likely to occur. These temperature loggers will provide helpful insight into the temperatures that the incubating loggerhead sea turtle eggs will experience this season.
 
Why is sand temperature important? Sea turtles, like most reptiles, have temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). It has been determined that the warmer the sand during incubation, the more likely female hatchlings will be produced and the cooler the sand during incubation, the more likely male hatchlings will be produced. This pivotal temperature is approximately 29 degrees Celsius (84.2 degrees Fahrenheit) (Mrosovsky 1988). The most influential temperature on the sex determination process occurs during the middle third of incubation (Ackerman 1997). Loggerhead sea turtle incubation times can range from 45-70 days. The temperature the eggs experience during incubation will also influence developmental times, hatchling fitness and hatching and emergence success (Fisher et al. 2014).
 
There are many other factors aside from sand temperature that can influence sea turtle hatchlings. Accumulated precipitation and humidity are considered to be the other climatic forces on the hatchling success (Montero et al. 2018). Although the temperature readings alone will not give a complete representation, beginning the collection of this data may assist future and greater-scale research projects in the state of South Carolina.
Picture
References:
Ackerman, R. A., (1997). The nest environment and the embryonic development of sea turtles. In: The Biology of Sea Turtles (eds Lutz PL, Musick JA), pp. 83–106. CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Fisher, L. R., Godfrey, M. H., & Owens, D. W., (2014). Incubation Temperature Effects on Hatchling Performance in the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta Caretta). PLoS One,9 (12), e114880. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114880
 
Montero, N., Ceriani, S. A., Graham, K., & Fuentes, M. M. P. B., (2018). Influences of the Local Climate on Loggerhead Hatchling Production in North Florida: Implications From Climate Change. Front. Mar. Sci. 5:262. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2018.00262

Mrosovsky, N. (1988). Pivotal temperatures for loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) from northern and southern nesting beaches. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 66: 661-669. https://doi.org/10.1139/z88-098
2 Comments

    Leah Schwartzentruber

    Sea Turtle Specialist 
    Edisto Beach State Park
    8377 State Cabin Road
    Edisto Island, SC, 29438

    Archives

    January 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    January 2021
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    October 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Loggerhead Sea Turtle
  • What you can do
  • Symbolic Adoption Program
  • YouTube
  • DNA Study