Syllabus Section: Environment, Ecology and Biodiversity

 

Why in news?

A Team of researchers from the Saudi Arabia King Abdullah University of Science and Technology conducted a study and reported that the turtle population in Red Sea is turning female due to rise in sea temperature and climate change.

Key findings of the report

• They selected five sites in the region that are favored by Green Turtles and Hawksbill, The researchers collected data for every fifteen minutes for five months.

• According to the researchers, to maintain 50:50 ratio of males and females population, temperature of 29.2 degrees Celsius is required. Above this temperature, the turtle hatchlings will predominantly be female.

• The researchers during the study found that the temperature at four out of the selected five sites exceeded 29.2 degrees Celsius.

Conservation of Turtles

• According to IUCN, 80% of these turtles were lost in the last 10 years.

• Different turtles are classified differently by IUCN. The classification is as follows

1. The Loggerhead and Green Sea Turtles are classified as “Endangered”. Their population have declines by 50% in the last ten years

2. Leatherback Turtles and Oliver Ridley Turtles have been classified as “Vulnerable”.

3. Leatherback Turtle in Northwest Atlantic has been classified as “Endangered”.

4. Green Turtle, Kemp’s Ridley Turtle and Hawksbill turtle have been classified as “Critically endangered”.

 

Source: Down to Earth