Girls Rule the Beaches

How Rising temperatures feminize sea turtles.

The sex of a marine turtle is determined by temperatures in the nest (incubation). Warming trends are causing a higher production of female hatchlings (Patino-Martinez, et. al., 2012). Eventually this imbalance may cause fitness levels of turtle populations to diminish.

Sex ratios for sea turtles are known to be biased toward females, already at 90%. If temperatures continue to rise, male production could be completely eliminated. “Populations of turtles in more southern parts of the United States are currently highly female biased and are likely to become ultra-biased with as little as 1°C of warming and experience extreme levels of mortality if warming exceeds 3°C” (Hawkes, et al., 2007. P.923).

In addition to feminization, sea turtles face many more problems arising from climate change (e.g. loss of nesting beaches from rising water; changes in reproductive periodicity, changes in ranges, predation by invasive species). Check this link for an article on sea turtles in Australia and how they are responding to climate change.

Here is a video on climate change in general.

You can research all of these topics from the library home page.

References: (citations are not in any particular format)

HAWKES, L. A., BRODERICK, A. C., GODFREY, M. H. and GODLEY, B. J. (2007), Investigating the potential impacts of climate change on a marine turtle population. Global Change Biology, 13: 923–932.

Patino-Martinez, J., Marco, A., Quiñones, L. and Hawkes, L. (2012), A potential tool to mitigate the impacts of climate change to the caribbean leatherback sea turtle. Global Change Biology, 18: 401–411. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02532.x

M.M.P.B. Fuentes, M. Hamann, C.J. Limpus, Past, current and future thermal profiles of green turtle nesting grounds: Implications from climate change.  Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Volume 383, Issue 1, 31 January 2010, Pages 56-64, (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022098109004663) 

image credit: Diane Arrieta. Green turtle. Jupiter, Island, FL , 2012.

Monkey Business

 Part one: Discovered.

FAU Assistant Professor of Anthropology Kate Detwiler was part of the team that recently discovered a new species of African monkey, Cercopithecus lomamiensis. You can read the press release here; or read the article published here.

This new primate represents only the second new species of African monkey to be discovered in the past 28 years.

Part two: Endangered monkey demographics raise new conservation questions in Brazil.

At first glance, the Northern Muriqui (Brachyteles hypoxanthus) monkey seems to be a conservation success story. Populations are now at 300 and  rising. Researchers are now finding that the Muriqui are entering a new phase of recovery as they face habitat limitations. Statistical models are showing increasing populations, but also higher mortality rates. A shift in the male to female ratio ise also increasing.

Higher populations of a species generally reduce fertility; not so in this case. The Muriqui are also exhibiting behavioral changes to include more ground activity. Strier believes this shift may explain both the rise in fertility and mortality. The males of the species typically spent more time on the ground than females (SD, 2012).

The statistical models indicate that population monitoring is essential on a long term basis and careful consideration for environmental carrying capacities are vital for species survival (SD, 2012).

The Northern Muriqui is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species.

References:

Hart JA, Detwiler KM, Gilbert CC, Burrell AS, Fuller JL, et al. (2012) Lesula: A New Species of Cercopithecus Monkey Endemic to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Implications for Conservation of Congo’s Central Basin. Online. Available at:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044271

image copyright: Teddy Hilton  http://teddyhilton.com/2012-09-15-new-monkey-species-discovered-in-central-africa?from=PHheadline

Science daily, 2012.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120918145001.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_environment+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Environment%29

Strier, Karen B. ,  Ives, Anthony R., 2012 . Unexpected Demography in the Recovery of an Endangered Primate Population. PLoS ONE, 7 (9. Online. Available at:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0044407

You otter know: Sea Otters help combat global warming.

The importance of healthy ecosystems and stable animal populations can be demonstrated by a recent study in California showing that healthy sea otter (Enhydra lutris) populations can have an effect on carbon sequestration. Healthy populations of sea otters keep sea urchins populations under control; allowing kelp forests to thrive. Kelp forests are very efficient at sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

Researchers agree that increasing otter populations will not cure the CO2 problem, but the study demonstrates that “managing animal populations can affect ecosystems abilities to sequester carbon” (SD, 2012).

Mitigating the rise of carbon released into the atmosphere is an ever increasing environmental issue. Helping animals could be a big boost for the environment as well. To read more on the study go here; or see the reference to the complete journal article below.

Here is another article on carbon sequestration in marine ecosystems.

Side note:

Sea otters are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. World populations of sea otters fell to 1,000–2,000. Bans on hunting along with several reintroduction and conservation programs have helped to restore otter populations, but they are  recovering slowly. You may read more here.

 

References: (Please note these references are not properly formatted for use in student  papers- you must reformat them to your proper style).

Chris Wilmers, James Estes, Matthew Edwards, Kristin L. Laidre and Brenda Konar. Do trophic cascades affect the storage of flux of atmospheric carbon? An analysis of sea otters and kelp forests. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 2012 (in press)

Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120907161437.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Ftop_news%2Ftop_environment+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Top+News+--+Top+Environment%29

image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sea_otter_cropped.jpg

Carbon Sinks in Nearshore Marine Vegetated Ecosystems http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/carbon_seq/5c5.pdf

Who Let the Dogs out?

Beach managers and scientist have been battling seagull droppings and the possibility of disease for a long time. Seagull feces can carry disease-causing microbes like Escherichia coli and Enterococcus. This can contaminate beaches and water, leading to human infections.

   

Several methods have been tested, such as beach workers grooming the sands daily to remove the seagull droppings; oiling the seagull eggs to prevent hatching; and now canine patrol. Dog handlers are using border collies to chase the birds off the beach from sunup to sunset. Early results show that the dogs are having a significant impact on controlling the bacteria.

The dogs are trained to leave endangered species alone, and the handlers pick up the dog feces daily. Some see this as seagull harassment, while others see it as a more humane method of seagull control. Read the full article here.

Here are some articles related to birds and diseases. (Please note that you may have to be logged into the FAU network for the links to be functional; or use the citations below. Also note that any Wikipedia references are not refereed and may not be appropriate for coursework).

1.      Human infections associated with wild birds. Link here.

2.      Bird's eye view of emerging zoonoses.  Link here.

3.      First Detection of Bacillus anthracis in Feces of Free-ranging Raptors

from Central Argentina. Link here.

References:

 Sotirios Tsiodras, Theodoros Kelesidis, Iosif Kelesidis, Ulf Bauchinger, Matthew E. Falagas

 Human infections associated with wild birds

 Journal of Infection, Volume 56, Issue 2, February 2008, Pages 83–98

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2007.11.001

Lubick, Naomi, Science Magazine, August 31, 2012. Online.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/08/microbe-free-beaches-thanks-to.html?ref=hp

Bird's eye view of emerging zoonoses. Polyxeni Potter. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 16.2 (Feb. 2010) p369. Word Count: 1336.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE|A221918691&v=2.1&u=gale15691&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w&authCount=1

Miguel D. Saggese,  Ramo´n  P. Noseda, Marcela M. Uhart,  Sharon L. Deem, Hebe Ferreyra,

Marcelo C. Romano,6 Marı´a C. Ferreyra-Armas,7 and Martin Hugh-Jones. First Detection of Bacillus anthracis in Feces of Free-ranging Raptors from Central Argentina.  Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 43(1), 2007, pp. 136–141.

http://www.jwildlifedis.org/content/43/1/136.full.pdf+html

image credit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seagull_in_flight_by_Jiyang_Chen.jpg