Pike David A
School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2008 Dec 23;4(6):704-6. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0359.
Coastal ecosystems provide vital linkages between aquatic and terrestrial habitats and thus support extremely high levels of biodiversity. However, coastlines also contain the highest densities of human development anywhere on the planet and are favoured destinations for tourists, creating a situation where the potential for negative effects on coastal species is extremely high. I gathered data on marine turtle reproductive output from the literature to determine whether coastal development negatively influences offspring production. Female loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) nesting on natural beaches (as opposed to beaches with permanent development) produce significantly more hatchling turtles per nest; all else being equal, females that successfully produce more offspring will have higher fitness than conspecifics producing fewer offspring. Thus, female marine turtles nesting on natural beaches probably have higher fitness than turtles nesting on developed beaches. Consequently, populations nesting on natural beaches may be able to recover more quickly from the historic population declines that have plagued marine turtles, and some species may recover more quickly than others.
沿海生态系统在水生和陆地栖息地之间提供了至关重要的联系，从而支持了极高水平的生物多样性。然而，海岸线也是地球上人类开发密度最高的地方，并且是受游客青睐的目的地，这就造成了对沿海物种产生负面影响的可能性极高的局面。我从文献中收集了关于海龟繁殖产出的数据，以确定沿海开发是否会对后代生产产生负面影响。在天然海滩（与有永久性开发的海滩相对）筑巢的蠵龟（Caretta caretta）和绿海龟（Chelonia mydas）雌龟，每个巢穴产出的幼龟明显更多；在其他条件相同的情况下，成功产出更多后代的雌龟将比产出较少后代的同种个体具有更高的适合度。因此，在天然海滩筑巢的雌海龟可能比在开发海滩筑巢的海龟具有更高的适合度。因此，在天然海滩筑巢的种群或许能够更快地从困扰海龟的历史性种群数量下降中恢复过来，而且一些物种可能比其他物种恢复得更快。
