The Impact of Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination on the Population Dynamics of Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia mydas)
Abstract:
The sex of the turtles is determined by the incubation temperature of the eggs during the mid-trimester of development. In Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), recent studies show that sex ratios are changing, producing a female-biased sex ratio within the population. We developed a novel continuous model to analyze the dynamics of the green sea turtle population long-term. We determine the safe operating space for the proportion of eggs that become male at which the population of Green sea turtle can exist without going to extinction. When the proportion of male eggs leaves this range the overall population of turtles collapses. Additionally, we examined how temperature changes affect the sex ratios of the Green sea turtle population.
Year: 2019
Authors
Candy Herrera - Yachay Tech University
Evelyn Guerra - California State Polytechnic University
Victoria Penalver - University of Hawaii
Andrea Rosas - California State University, Fullerton
Yingying Wei - University of Shanghai for Science and Technology
Jack Pringle - Arizona State University
Baltazar Espinoza - Arizona State University
Baojun Song - Montclair State University
