Ac. Broderick et al., Incubation periods and sex ratios of green turtles: highly female biased hatchling production in the eastern Mediterranean, MAR ECOL-PR, 202, 2000, pp. 273-281
Marine turtles are globally endangered and subject to numerous conservation
and management initiatives, yet many aspects of their life histories remai
n undescribed. All populations subject to investigation have been shown to
have temperature dependent sex determination, and data in a number of cases
have suggested that the sex ratio of hatchling production may be highly fe
male biased. To date, the green turtle Chelonia mydas has been Little studi
ed in this respect. We recorded the temperature in 18 green turtle clutches
laid at Alagadi Beach, Northern Cyprus using automated intra-nest recordin
g devices. The temperatures experienced within these clutches ranged from 2
6.7 to 34.1 degrees C with mean temperature ranging from 29.8 to 32.5 degre
es C. No regular diel thermal cycle was observed. Incubation periods at thi
s site decreased as the season progressed and ranged from 43 to 60 d (n = 2
31; 1993 to 1998). In comparison to other published studies regarding tempe
rature dependent sex determination in this species, these data are strongly
suggestive of a highly female biased hatchling sex ratio. This hypothesis
was partly confirmed utilising histological sexing of hatchlings found dead
in nests (>99% female in 1998, n = 231). From these data we estimate that
the pivotal incubation period for this population is greater than or equal
to 56 d and the pivotal temperature as below 29.2 degrees C. Using a conser
vative assumption that 100% males are produced by nests with incubation per
iods greater than or equal to 56 d and 100 % females are produced by nests
with shorter incubations, for the years 1993 to 1998, we estimate that at l
east 86 to 96% of hatchlings produced at this site were female.