Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia.
School of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Biol Lett. 2021 May;17(5):20210038. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0038. Epub 2021 May 12.
There are major concerns about the ecological impact of extreme weather events. In the oceans, marine heatwaves (MHWs) are an increasing threat causing, for example, recent devastation to coral reefs around the world. We show that these impacts extend to adjacent terrestrial systems and could negatively affect the breeding of endangered species. We demonstrate that during an MHW that resulted in major coral bleaching and mortality in a large, remote marine protected area, anomalously warm temperatures also occurred on sea turtle nesting beaches. Granger causality testing showed that variations in sea surface temperature strongly influenced sand temperatures on beaches. We estimate that the warm conditions on both coral reefs and sandy beaches during the MHW were unprecedented in the last 70 years. Model predictions suggest that the most extreme female-biased hatchling sex ratio and the lowest hatchling survival in nests in the last 70 years both occurred during the heatwave. Our work shows that predicted increases in the frequency and intensity of MHWs will likely have growing impacts on sea turtle nesting beaches as well as other terrestrial coastal environments.
人们对极端天气事件的生态影响表示严重关切。在海洋中，海洋热浪（MHWs）是一种日益严重的威胁，例如，最近对世界各地的珊瑚礁造成了严重破坏。我们表明，这些影响延伸到相邻的陆地系统，并可能对濒危物种的繁殖产生负面影响。我们证明，在一次海洋热浪中，一个大型的、偏远的海洋保护区中的珊瑚大量白化和死亡，在海龟筑巢海滩上也出现了异常温暖的温度。格兰杰因果关系检验表明，海面温度的变化强烈影响了海滩上的沙温。我们估计，在海洋热浪期间，珊瑚礁和沙滩上的温暖条件在过去 70 年中是前所未有的。模型预测表明，在热浪期间，最极端的雌性偏斜的幼龟性别比例和巢穴中最低的幼龟存活率都出现在过去 70 年中。我们的工作表明，海洋热浪的频率和强度预计会增加，这将对海龟筑巢海滩以及其他陆地沿海环境产生越来越大的影响。
