Turtle Researcher Wins Award for Climate Change Research
Ecologists are only beginning to understand the potential impact of global warming on biological populations around the world, and their findings are unsettling. One such researcher, Dr. Joan Whittier, co-principal investigator for Earthwatch's Green Turtles of Malaysia project, was recently recognized for her contribution as the winner of the CGNU/Earthwatch Award for Climate Change Research.
Whittier, a biologist at the University of Queensland, received the £6000 (approximately US$8,500) award at the Royal Geographical Society in London for her ongoing work with the green turtles (Chelonia mydas) of Malaysia. The generous award is funded by CGNU, the largest insurance group in the U.K., through a partnership with Earthwatch Europe.
"I am delighted to have won this award because it will allow us to extend the research to look at more hatcheries and obtain some additional monitoring equipment to study more nests," said Whittier. She has been working with Earthwatch volunteers and co-researcher Kamarruddin Ibrahim, the primary research officer for a Malaysian government marine turtle research and monitoring program, to improve hatchery performance of green turtles.
Green turtle numbers have declined by a staggering 60 percent in the last 50 years, primarily due to hunting and egg harvesting for human consumption. But the effects of global warming are more insidious, making Malaysian beaches too hot to incubate turtle nests effectively. Ocean temperatures in the region have increased by one-to-two degrees Centigrade over the last decade, and the clearing of beachside vegetation has increased sun exposure. Sand temperatures are too high for normal turtle development, resulting in hatchlings that are unhealthy and skewed toward females.
Government-funded hatchery programs in Malaysia are employed to help safeguard the turtles from poaching, but the high sand temperatures still pose a challenge for hatchling viability. Earthwatch volunteers are helping to produce healthy hatchlings in a balanced sex ratio by locating nesting turtles, marking or relocating their nests, monitoring sand temperatures, and observing the number, health, and sex of hatchlings that emerge. It has been found that hatchlings raised in cooler nests are generally fitter, more able to run and swim and less susceptible to abnormalities.
The grant from CGNU will be used to monitor nests more effectively using new data logger technology. Artificial hatcheries will be compared with natural, undisturbed nests to give scientists a better understanding of the optimum temperature for healthy hatchling production. The extension of the work will further document how hatchling health is compromised by global warming, habitat change, and environmental pollutants.
"This CGNU/Earthwatch award reminds us how much of life on Earth is fragile, and how easily small changes can affect it," said Dr. Robert Barrington, Chief Executive of Earthwatch Institute (Europe). "Climate change is likely to change the world substantially, and we need to act now if we want to save species like the green turtle from extinction. Dr. Whittier's work helps prove that this is not scare-mongering by environmental NGOs, but is objective observation based on hard science."
For information on volunteering on the Green Turtles of Malaysia project, click here
Earthwatch Institute is an international nonprofit organization which supports scientific field research worldwide by offering members of the public unique opportunities to work alongside leading field scientists and researchers. The Institute's mission is to engage people worldwide in scientific field research and education to promote the understanding and action necessary for a sustainable environment.