This image is part of a series that I'm developing looking at the effects of climate change on Australia's native wildlife.
This piece takes the form of a Green Sea Turtle, created from satellite images of their breeding ground on the Great Barrier Reef on the Australia coast.
Green Sea Turtles have probably the most unusual extinction path I've read about so far.
The gender of animals such as turtles and crocodiles is determined by the temperature experienced during egg development. Green Turtles develop into females if the temperature of the nest is more than 29°C (sand temperatures above 34°C are fatal).
As ambient and ocean temperatures rise with climate change, recent surveys have found that turtles hatching from beaches in the southern Great Barrier Reef are 65-69% female, but those hatching from northern beaches are 99% female.
The researchers concluded that the northern rookeries have been producing primarily females for more than two decades, and that complete ‘feminisation’ of the population may occur in the very near future, with disastrous consequences.
As ambient and ocean temperatures rise with climate change, recent surveys have found that turtles hatching from beaches in the southern Great Barrier Reef are 65-69% female, but those hatching from northern beaches are 99% female.
The researchers concluded that the northern rookeries have been producing primarily females for more than two decades, and that complete ‘feminisation’ of the population may occur in the very near future, with disastrous consequences.
To create this image, I sourced satellite images of the Great Barrier Reef from Geosciences Australia's platform Digital Earth Australia.
