Mass sea turtle slaughter at Pulau Tiga, Malaysia: Genetic studies indicate poaching locations and its potential effects

The impact of climate change on sea turtles: Current knowledge, scientometrics, and mitigation strategies

Sea turtles are one of the most significant groups of marine species, playing a key role in the sustainability and conservation of marine ecosystems and the food chain. These emblematic species are threatened by several natural and anthropogenic pressures, and climate change is increasingly reported as one of the most important threats to sea turtles, affecting sea turtles at all stages of their life cycle and at both their marine and coastal habitats. The effect of climate change is expressed as global warming, sea-level rise, extreme storms, and alterations in predation and diseases' patterns, posing a potentially negative impact on sea turtles. In this systematic review, the author presented the current knowledge and research outcomes on the impact of climate change on sea turtles. Moreover, this study determined trends and hotspots in keywords, country collaborations, authors, and publications in the field through a scientometric analysis. Finally, this article reviewed proposed mitigation strategies by researchers, marine protected area (MPA) managers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to reduce the impact of climate change on the conservation of sea turtles.

Forty years of monitoring increasing sea turtle relative abundance in the Gulf of Mexico

Longitudinal data sets for population abundance are essential for studies of imperiled organisms with long life spans or migratory movements, such as marine turtles. Population status trends are crucial for conservation managers to assess recovery effectiveness. A direct assessment of population growth is the enumeration of nesting numbers and quantifying nesting attempts (successful nests/unsuccessful attempts) and emergence success (number of hatchlings leaving the nest) because of the substantial annual variations due to nest placement, predation, and storm activity. We documented over 133,000 sea turtle crawls for 50.9 km of Florida Gulf of Mexico coastline from 1982 to 2021 for a large loggerhead turtle nesting aggregation and a recovering remnant population of green sea turtles. Over time both species have emerged to nest significantly earlier in the year and green sea turtle nesting seasons have extended. Nest counts and hatchling production for both species have significantly increased, but the rate of emergence success of hatchlings leaving nests has not changed for loggerheads and has declined for green sea turtles. Sea level rise and coastal developments undoubtedly influence coastal habitats in the long-term, impacting nest site selection and potential recruitment from the loss of emerged hatchlings. However, the present indications for steady Gulf of Mexico recovery of loggerhead and green sea turtles counter findings of the Florida Atlantic coasts. This study indicates that effective conservation practices can be detected within time scales of 1-2 turtle generations.