New Stress On Sea Turtle Hatchlings: Masses Of Dead Seaweed Changing Beach Sand Temps, Sex Ratios

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For almost a decade, giant rafts of brown sargassum seaweed have been choking coasts along the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean. The floating mass of seaweed stretches from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico and appears to be growing each year. Photo by Marc Bruxelle/Alamy Stock Photo

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At a population level, sea turtles are facing new risks, too. For most sea turtle species, the sex of a developing embryo changes based on the temperature, with hotter temperatures yielding more females. Warming caused by climate change is already threatening to shift the sex ratio, raising concerns about turtles’ long-term future.

But these threats are not occurring in isolation. As new research shows, beached seaweed is causing sand to warm even more, threatening sea turtle embryo development and potentially skewing their sex ratio.

Since 2011, giant rafts of brown sargassum seaweed have been choking coasts along the Caribbean Sea and tropical Atlantic Ocean. The seaweed is splintering off from the great Atlantic sargassum belt, a floating mass stretching from West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico that appears to be growing each year. The vast amount of seaweed is creating ongoing challenges for local peoples, and raising concerns among scientists for the many organisms that may be unable to cope with the overabundance.

Andrew Maurer, an ecologist at North Carolina State University, worried that all this seaweed may be affecting developing sea turtles still in their eggs. “Warmer temperatures can produce smaller, weaker hatchlings, can result in embryonic mortality, and can produce more females,” he says.

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https://hakaimagazine.com/news/seaweed-is-putting-sea-turtles-in-a-hot-mess/