It seems we're not the only ones struggling to adapt to the summer weather – University of Queensland (UQ) researchers have found the increased temperatures may be affecting turtles too.

Zoologist Dr David Booth, from UQ's School of Biological Sciences, said green turtle hatchlings from Heron Island weren't swimming as well as usual.

“The 2008-2009 green turtle nesting season on Heron Island has seen the highest nest temperatures recorded at this site, with many nests having average temperatures above 31 degrees, and experiencing temperatures above 35 degrees during the last week of incubation,” Dr Booth said.

“If climate change results in consistently high nest temperatures in the future, then the poorer swimming ability of hatchlings emerging from hot nests may have a negative impact on recruitment of hatchlings from coral cays because predation rate is thought to be related to swimming ability.”

Basing his research at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef at UQ's Heron Island Research Station, Dr Booth took advantage of the unique laboratory facilities that are within metres of a green turtle nesting beach.

“My research involves going out and collecting fresh eggs as they're being laid by the females, moving them into other nests that are not going to get dug up by other females and then coming back about five to six weeks later to sample the hatchlings to measure their swimming performance,” he said.

Story from ScienceAlert.com.au

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